


Send In The Clones

by Debi_C



Series: Second Chances. [5]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-12
Updated: 2011-10-12
Packaged: 2017-10-24 13:02:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Debi_C/pseuds/Debi_C
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel goes missing on an off world mission and who else should come to the rescue but the next generation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Send In The Clones

**Author's Note:**

> // denotes Egyptian language //

The phone call came early in the morning. Jon O'Neill rolled over and flailed about for the alarm clock. When he discovered that wasn't the source of the strident ringing he knocked it on the floor in frustration. Finally, he located the source of the noise and pulled the vid phone receiver onto the bed with him. "Llo."

It was General Paul Davis of the SGC. "Captain O'Neill." The picture of the officer that showed on the receiver's screen looked tired and mussed.

"Gen'ral? Sir? What's going on?" Jon sat up and ran his hand through his hair, aware of how he must look to the older officer.

Davis wasted no time with amenities. "We have a problem, Captain. Can you come to Cheyenne Mountain ASAP?"

"Sure, I mean, yes sir." He looked into the phone's video sensor. There was someone in the background that looked familiar. The picture suddenly shifted to another worried face.

"Jon, get your ass out of bed and bring Danny with you."

"Jack?" He immediately recognized the worried looking, white-haired man who was talking to him. Hell, he was him.

"Daniel's missing, Jon, and they won't let me go through the damned gate to look for him. You're the next best thing. So hurry your skinny ass up!"

"Daniel?" Reflexively he turned to look at the rumpled bed next to him. A tuft of sandy blond hair was sticking out from under the sheet.

"Yeah, MY Daniel. Hurry up will ya?"

"Oh, yeah. I'll be there in 30."

"And bring Danny too!"

"Yeah, gottcha. Bye." He cut the connection, reached over and put the vidphone back on the night stand. He then turned over and put his hand on Danny's shoulder. "Did you hear?"

The heretofore hidden younger man pushed the comforter down away from his shoulders and chest. "Yes, Daniel's missing. I'll go get dressed."

"We need a shower, babe. We smell like last night was too much fun."

"Okay, you go first, and I'll get the coffee started." Danny reached for his glasses. "And Jon? It was fun, but not too much."

Jon reached over and pulled him into a tight hug and kissed him. "Babe, it was just enough. But let's go before Jack pops a vessel."

When the two of them arrived at Cheyenne Mountain, they noticed a heightened sense of alertness and urgency. Danny was passed on by visual recognition as usual being well known to the SFs at the security counter, but Jon had to stop and show his ID as he wasn't officially assigned to the SGC yet. When they were in the elevator, it stopped at level 21 before it got to the command section.

A tall brunette wearing medical scrubs, and the gold leaves of an AF Major, stepped in the car with them. She glanced at them at first then turned back to frankly stare. "Oh my God, it's true!"

Jon and Danny looked at her in confusion. The older man spoke "I'm sorry, ma'am. What's true?"

The woman pinked a little, then shook her head. "You don't recognize me, do you?"

Danny was looking at her searchingly, then smiled and nodded. "I see you followed in your mother's footsteps."

"Yes, but not nearly as closely as you have your father's."

"If you say so Cassie." Danny nodded with a knowing smile.

Jon immediately put a name to face with the younger man's comment. "So," he looked at her clothing, "it's Doctor Cassie now?"

She smiled. "You must be Uncle Jack's clone. You look a little younger than I remember him when I was rescued from Hanka." She looked at Danny. "And you're Uncle Daniel's mysterious son that recently appeared."

Jon nodded smoothly. "You must have just arrived and they haven't filled you in on everything yet."

"Just got here yesterday," she nodded. "And no, I don't know all the inside info, just what the nurses are giving me in gossip. Of course, I knew about you from Mom." Cassie looked at Jon. So, we're about the same age now."

The older man smiled. "Kinda sorta. Body-wise anyway."

She smiled up at him. "But how come you two are roommates? Surely after all this time you and your father would want to spend time... "

"It was my choice to stay with Jon," Danny put in smoothly. "I'm eighteen years old and I've never had a Dad. I didn't think I'd like the parental stuff. So, Jon offered to take me in." He shrugged. "Daniel and I work with each other, that's enough for now."

"So you're eighteen?"

"That's what my brand-new birth certificate says." The blue eyes were dancing. Cassie was going to pay long and hard for her assumptions.

"Did you know that your father was going off-world this week?" she asked the youngster.

"Sure, it was arranged some time ago. He's one of the few people that the Nox will communicate with. I wanted to go but I'm not cleared for gate travel yet. The security paperwork is still not complete."

Jon frowned at his partner. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

The younger man shrugged. "You didn't ask. Why didn't Jack tell you?"

"From the look of him this morning, I'm not sure HE knew."

~~~

Jon and Danny arrived in the Command Briefing Room to find General Davis already behind closed doors. The secretary nodded to them and the two young men entered, Jon in the forefront. As they came into the room, they were surprised to see who else was there.

Retired Major General Jack O'Neill was seated in his old place next to the SGC's present commander. Across the table were two very familiar looking Jaffa. Teal'c had not lost one iota of his presence and the other man bore a strong familial resemblance to him.

Teal'c looked from Jon to Jack. "I understand now how this will work, O'Neill. But can he fulfill his duties?"

Jack looked at Teal'c with a wry grin. "Well, Teal'c I certainly hope so." He waved his hand at Danny. "Meet the other SG1 clone, Danny Jackson. He can do the job all right. Danny, you remember Rya'c."

The younger Jaffa looked at the youngster in surprise. "He looks identical to Doctor Jackson."

Jon pulled out a chair and sat down next to the retired General. "Well, almost but not quite."

Teal'c nodded to the older clone. "It is good to see you again, Captainoneill. I am pleased to see that you are doing well." He looked at Danny, "And you are a welcome surprise, young Danieljackson."

Danny nodded, reassured by the big man's acceptance. "Thank you, Teal'c. I appreciate it."

Jack watched as long as he could stand it. "Good to see you kids, but can we cut to the chase?"

Paul Davis nodded. "Doctor Jackson was sent with a diplomatic team to work with two warring factions on the planet's surface, the Deloam and the Natuk. He had been requested by Lya of the Nox to assist in working out the agreement between the two political parties." He sighed. "We were willing to help but only in an advisory capacity. Doctor Jackson was supposed to go, sit in, make suggestions and then come home."

"Yeah," Jack made a face, "except, as we all know, nothing ever works out right with Danny, er, Daniel. There's just something about him that attracts ... trouble."

Jon looked at him thoughtfully then glanced at Danny. He knew it was true.

Danny, however, objected. "Hey, I never, I mean Daniel never did anything on purpose."

"None-the-less, O'Neill is correct," Teal'c said. "Danieljackson drew trouble to himself, however unknowingly."

"So you don't think Danny here should go?" Davis looked back and forth between the men at the table.

"I do not," the older Jaffa intoned seriously, "however, I do not know of a better plan."

"Wait a minute, what plan?" Jon demanded. "We have a plan?"

"Indeed," Rya'c picked up where his father had left off. "Both of the cultures involved are very patriarchal. Much influence could be had if Doctor Jackson's son would come forth to finish the negotiations for his father."

"Wait, first I want a sit-rep of what happened?" Jon demanded. "What is going on?"

Everyone looked at Paul Davis who made a frustrated face. "Doctor Jackson left here with SG11 to broker a peace treaty. Somehow, during the process, he was taken hostage." The General looked around the table. "It seems he inadvertently placed himself as insurance for the treaty."

"He did what?" General O'Neill blustered.

"He offered his assurances that the treaty would hold. The Natuks have a tradition that one puts ones self where his mouth is. So they ... "

"So they took him at his word," Danny finished. "I can see how that happened with their perception."

"Well, they can't have him," Jack stated flatly. "I want him back ... hell, I wouldn't have let him go in the first place if I had known about this." He looked at Davis with anger. "He's not even supposed to go off world anymore."

"General O'Neill, if there had been any other way ... "

"There's always another way," Jon put in defending Jack's position. "You could have sent someone else ... and I don't mean Danny either. Look, I don't mind leading the SAR. I volunteer for it since you won't let Jack go. But what do you want Danny for?" He looked over at his young lover. "I'm not trading, so don't even go there."

Davis quickly shook his head. "No of course not. We just need him as he is the only other person who can speak the languages of both parties involved. I do not consider either Doctor Jackson expendable or you either for that matter."

"Fine! I'll go!" Jack exclaimed.

"No you won't!" Doctor Susan Barrett commented from the other side of the table. "General, you are too ... "

"I am not too old, for crying out loud!" He slammed his hand down on the tabletop. "Damn it, I am perfectly capable ... !"

"I was going to say valuable." The doctor's voice was now pitched low and soothing. "And after that incident last summer ... "

"Shut up, Barrett!" Jack warned her, scowling in her direction..

"After what incident?" Jon alerted to the doctor's unspoken word.

"Nothing! Nothing happened!" Jack enunciated clearly. "I am fine."

"Thanks to Doctor Jackson's quick action." She replied firmly.

"But ... " He raised a finger at her." They got it in time. It didn't happen. I'm fine."

"What didn't happen?" Danny asked quietly.

"General O'Neill suffered chest pains, shortness of breath, and tingling in his left side."

"You had a heart attack?" Jon looked at his older self in surprise.

"No! I had signs of a heart attack. We caught it, Daniel got me to the hospital in three minutes flat and they fixed it."

"They prevented it," Barrett said firmly. "But it could have been very serious."

"Coulda, woulda, mighta, didn't," Jack returned. "I've changed my diet, done all the stuff the docs told me to and, Daniel watches me like a hawk, and I'm fine now."

"You had a heart attack," Jon said firmly. "Now I know why he didn't tell you."

"Yeah, and we're gonna have a talk about that when I get him back."

Teal'c nodded. "And so we shall do so, O'Neill. Do not worry."

~~~

The four men approached the Stargate with confidence. Though Jon and Danny had never actually gone through the wormhole before, their predecessors certainly had and they had all their memories and training. None the less, the two had been put through every test Doctors Barrett and Fraiser could invent.

They were all carrying standard issue field packs. Jon was equipped with the modified p-90, Danny had his trusted 9 mm Glock pistol, and the two Jaffa carried their traditional staff weapons. Standing back behind the floor's yellow emergency markings, the four friends watched the orgasmic flush of the plasma wave.

Jon looked over at his partner. "Well, here we go again."

Danny smiled at him like a sun shining. "To infinity and beyond."

He couldn't resist it. The Captain reached over and patted Danny on the shoulder. Then they turned resolutely and entered the wormhole. Teal'c looked at Rya'c and nodded, they followed right behind the duo.

Jon exited the Stargate and turned to look at Danny. As he did, the younger man seemed to jerk upright in a muscle spasm. He turned and his blue eyes locked with Jon's before they rolled back into his head and he collapsed on the pedestal.

"Danny!" Jon immediately knelt by the fallen youth and tried to move him into a comfortable position. A seizure racked the smaller man shaking him from Jon's hands. Danny's muscles spasmed, curling him into a ball. Blood seeped from his bitten lip.

Jon picked him up in his arms, holding the slight body. "Danny, talk to me!" He forced the younger man to lie down across his lap, stroking his head and murmuring to him. Finally, the rictus stopped. After a few seconds, Danny opened his eyes and looked up at Jon.

"Danny? Are you okay? Danny, talk to me."

"I'm 'kay." The words were slurred. "Wha' 'appen'd?" He made as if to sit up.

"Whoa, just relax. You had some kind of attack." Jon held onto him. "You need to take a minute."

"'tack?"

"You experienced a period of unconsciousness," Teal'c spoke to the youngster. "I have not witnessed such a thing with Danieljackson before."

"Neither have I," Jon replied looking down worriedly. "Daniel never had this reaction to the gate."

Danny struggled to sit up. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, sure you are. C'mon, I'm taking you back to the base."

"No, no, we gotta get Dan'l. Can't go back."

"What do you believe is causing this?" Teal'c crouched down to look at Jon. There was concern in his dark eyes.

"Teal'c, I don't really know," Jon replied. "It's his first time through the gate. It could be from anything, but he's no good to us like this."

Teal'c nodded in agreement.

Danny looked up at his lover. "Jon, got to ... got to ... get ... Daniel." He shook his head in frustration.

"Hey, you're as important as Daniel. He wouldn't want to risk you to save him."

The youngster looked up at him. "Got ... go ... Dan'el." He took a deep breath then shuddered again. "H.h.elp. Get Dan'el. Nooo le've."

Jon looked at him in concern. "I know that you want to save Daniel, I know that, but ... "

"Sa.sa.ve Dan ... el. "

"Not this way, Danny," the older man remonstrated. "You're sick. Maybe it was the 'gate travel, but there's no way you're going anywhere like this."

Danny glared at him but couldn't seen to gain enough strength to argue. Jon looked up at Teal'c. "We've got to take him back to the SGC."

"Indeed," the big man agreed. "His condition will not allow him to assist us and may only cause him more harm."

The younger man shook his head no.

"Danny, you can't help like this. Let me take you home. Maybe we can figure out what the problem is."

The expression on the younger man's face gave away his frustrations, but he couldn't seem to form the words he wanted to say. Jon picked up the slender body and looked at the senior Jaffa. "Dial us home, T."

Part 2  
As they exited the wormhole into the welcoming arms of the SGC, General Davis and Jack O'Neill came running into the gateroom. There was no need for them to ask about the early return. Danny was in the throes of another seizure.

Jon laid the young man down on the concrete floor and firmly held his head and shoulders in his lap to keep his movements from injuring himself further on the hard surface. "Medic! Medic! Man down!"

When the two Generals arrived at their side, Jack and Paul could only watch the seizure take its toll, unable to help in any way. Then Danny collapsed into unconsciousness in Jon's arms.

"What happened?" Jack demanded.

"I don't know!" Jon was looking down, still holding on to his love's unconscious form with a death grip.

Teal'c stepped up to the two older men. "As soon as we exited the Stargate, Danieljackson began to have seizures. He could hardly communicate from that point on."

Within seconds, Doctors Barrett and Fraiser were on scene and tending the unresponsive young man lying on the Gateroom floor.

"What happened?" Cassie Fraiser looked at Jon.

"Nothing! Nothing happened," he replied in a panicked voice. "We came out the other side of the wormhole and he started having a seizure. I don't know if it was the trip, something on the planet, or something else." He stroked the long hair back from Danny's lax features. "I brought him right back."

"Did he say anything before he had the first seizure?" Barrett asked, watching while the new doctor took vitals. "Could he speak at all?"

"Danieljackson did indeed say a few words, but they were garbled," Teal'c answered. Rya'c stood next to his father watching the events worriedly.

"They were slurred, as if he was having trouble talking" Jon answered.

"Does he have a history of epilepsy?" Cassie asked as the gurney appeared.

"I don't know," Jon looked at Barrett unhappily, who was taking Danny's vitals.

Fraiser looked to Jack. "Did Daniel say anything to you about his son's condition?"

Jack was watching the younger version of Daniel worriedly. He turned to her in confusion. "Daniel? How would he know anything?"

Barrett stood up and motioned the orderlies to put the youngster on the stretcher for transport. She turned to her co-worker and in a low voice said, "Let's get him to the infirmary first. You need to be briefed on some things."

Within a short time they had relocated with their patient to the clinic. Danny was quickly transferred to a bed and hooked up with an IV drip. He appeared to be sleeping peacefully as Jon took up residence in the chair beside the bed. Cassie again took his vitals and compared them to the ones from his arrival through the wormhole and his base ones on record.

Generals Davis and O'Neill stepped into Barrett's office. She closed the door and folded her arms across her chest.

"Well?" Jack asked looking through the office window to watch Cassie at her work.

"I'm not sure of anything right now," the doctor sighed. "We've got him on Dilantan to control the seizures. It could have been caused by the trip, an allergen on the other side, or it could be part of his physical condition."

"His physical condition?" Davis asked. "Daniel never had this response to the Stargate before."

"No, but he's not quite exactly Daniel Jackson either." Barrett answered grimly. "There's a lot of scarring in his brain," she watched the grim tableau going on in her clinic. "There's even a metal implant." She sighed. "It could be anything ... or nothing."

"But we need him to get Daniel." Jack looked frustrated.

"Jack, be reasonable," Paul started. "He certainly can't go now."

Barrett nodded. "Even if he recovers fully there's no way I can approve his going through the gate after this."

As they looked out the plate glass window, a nurse walked up to Cassie and spoke to her. The young doctor then said something to Jon. There was a bit of a discussion then a corpsman brought the gurney back and loaded the unconscious Danny on to the wheeled bed. After they took the younger man away, Jon stood up and came to the office door and knocked. Jack opened the door for him.

"What's going on?"

Jon shook his head. "They're taking him to do some tests."

Barrett nodded. "In radiology. I have to go. I don't want them to do anything that might hurt him further. Cassie doesn't know his history yet."

"Very well, meet me in my office in an hour." Davis spoke before either of the O'Neills had a chance for further argument.

After the whole group including Teal'c and Rya'c had reassembled in the General's office, Paul closed the door and sat down at the head of the table.

"We have to go after Daniel," Jack insisted.

"Agreed, General O'Neill, but Danny Jackson obviously can't go. What do you recommend?"

"I recommend you let Teal'c, Rya'c, Jon here, and myself go. We could get him out of anything."

"Yes, but what would the body count be?"

Jon looked from Jack to Paul. "The important body count would be one, as in one saved Daniel."

"So you agree with him?" Davis appeared surprised.

"Hell yeah, General! Sorry." Jon caught himself at the swear word in front of two very senior officers. "He's Daniel Jackson, and worth a whole lot more than a bunch of off world primitives."

Jack glanced at him thankfully for the support. "Let us go in after dark. We can take out the guards with zats, grab Daniel and get back to the Stargate."

We should be able to extricate Danieljackson before they are aware of our presence." Teal'c agreed.

"What about the treaty?" Davis reminded them.

Jack just shook his head. "You won't like my answer."

Doctors Barrett and Fraiser entered the room and took their places at the table. The men looked at them expectantly. Jon rose to his feet as if to leave to go to the clinic, but the senior doctor waved him down.

"Dr Barrett?" Davis prompted his CMO.

"Danny suffered another Grand Mal seizure while in the X-Ray lab undergoing an EKG. I'm afraid to do an MRI scan on him because of the metal implants in his brain." She looked grim. "I'm not sure what the electrode was designed to do but I believe that his exposure to the wormhole is the cause of the seizures."

"So you're saying that Danny can't go through the Stargate at all?" Jack asked.

"Not if the implants remain in place. We're doing a CT scan to see if we can determine what its purpose was."

"I do not understand," Teal'c said quietly. "We had been told that he is the clone of Daniel Jackson; that Loki the Asgard had created him as he had cloned O'Neill years ago. But O'Neill did not have any ill effects from the Stargate."

General Davis looked to Jon. "Why don't you explain for the benefit of those of us who don't know his whole story."

Jon looked at Barrett. She returned it with a nod. "He's still sedated and will remain so fora at least another hour. You can still be there when he wakes up."

The young Captain took a deep breath and began. "Over a month ago, Commander Thor paid me a visit. He told me that some time ago Loki had cloned Daniel also, but that this clone didn't have the same death sentence built in him that I had fifteen years ago. Evidently, Loki wanted to study the differences between the Ancients and the human race. So he made Danny to experiment on at his leisure. In the two years of Danny's existence the little monster had done some pretty nasty things to him, all kinds of tests and biopsies without pain killers, and evidently he'd almost killed him a time or three. Danny still has nightmares about them." He looked at Jack who nodded encouragingly. "Well, the Asgard finally discovered Loki and they found Danny. So they turned him over to Thor who then brought him to Earth and gave him to me." Jon shrugged. "I took him in of course, and then called Jack who advised me to call General Davis."

Davis nodded at the younger man. "I was thrilled to learn of the youngster's existence. He's already been a big help to Doctor Jackson. We created the identity of Daniel's son by his deceased wife, Sha'uri. It seemed the easiest way to explain Danny without putting him at risk, and his apparent age was close enough not to raise any eyebrows."

Jack smiled at his own clone. "Danny, er Daniel and I, well, we were happy to go along with the story. I was such an ass to Jon while he was growing up; it seemed like the right thing to do to help them out."

Teal'c nodded in acceptance. "It was indeed the wisest of plans. Your world can only benefit from the existence of two Danieljacksons."

Cassie had been sitting quietly, but finally spoke. "Since we couldn't do an MRI, we're hoping the CAT scan will show us where the electrodes from the interface are going. Since he's exhibited some aphasia, I'm betting that at least one is imbedded in the speech center of the brain. If there's been damage done by the wormhole, he could lose the ability to talk." She shrugged. "It just depends on how, where, and how many wire leads are involved."

Davis glanced back and forth between the two doctors. "Can they be removed?"

Barrett sighed. "It just depends, sir. That's what we're hoping the scan will show us. I was hesitant to try and remove anything that wasn't affecting Danny's quality of life. But right now we're at a wait and see point."

Jack looked at Jon. "I didn't want to put him at risk. I sure as hell didn't want anything to happen to him."

"I know, Jack." Jon sighed. "We had no way of knowing that this would be the result. He may never be able to go through the Stargate again."

Barrett and Fraiser exchanged glances, then the older woman spoke. "I just hope the damage to Danny will reverse itself."

"What do you mean?" Jon asked.

"Jon," Cassie spoke softly. "If there was permanent damage to the brain, he may not recover his ability to speak and he may continue to have seizure episodes."

"When will you know that?" Jack asked.

"When he wakes up. It may take some time though. We'll just have to wait and see."

Jon stared at them in dismay. "Not talk? Not at all?"

Barrett nodded. "As I said, we'll just have to wait and see. The fact that he was speaking when you brought him back is very encouraging. However, there could be some damage that might affect his linguistic abilities."

"When will you know Doctors?" Davis asked bluntly.

"When the tests all come back I'll be able to make a more educated decision." Barrett arose from the table and Cassie followed. "With you gentlemen's permission, I'm going back to the clinic, review my records and brief Doctor Fraiser here on the specifics of my patient."

"Of course, go ahead." Davis looked at the four men. "Let's look a little closer at this plan of yours."

~~~

A short time later Jon reappeared in the clinic and pulled a chair up to the bed where Danny lay. He was sleeping peacefully, looking impossibly young. When Cassie came out of Barrett's office and saw him, she stepped over to his side.

"Hey,"

Jon looked up. "Oh, hi Cassie."

"Daniel's son, huh?" She met his eyes. "It's not nice to lie to your doctor, you know."

"Well, it was too long a story to tell you in the elevator."

"Granted, but another Asgard clone is big news around here."

"We've kept it on a need to know basis because of the NID, just like my existence."

"That's why he doesn't live with Uncle Jack and Uncle Daniel."

"Right, General Davis was able to get him identification and it was the easiest way."

Danny moaned softly and turned towards Jon's voice. O'Neill gripped his hand and spoke to him. "Danny, can you hear me. Time to wake up now. You're scaring me."

"J'n?"

"Yeah, Danny, its me. How do you feel?"

There was only an exhausted sigh for an answer.

Cassie watched the younger man closely. "See if you can get him to speak."

"Danny, can you say something for Cassie?"

"'C'ss"

The young doctor leaned closer to her patient. "Danny, can you speak to me?"

His blue eyes flicked from Jon to Cassie, then back again. He blinked, then his expression became one of extreme concentration. He shook his head and closed his eyes. Tears began to gather under the long eyelashes.

"Danny, you said my name earlier," Jon prompted. "Can you say it again?"

Once again he opened his eyes. "J'n."

"Yes, you know who I am. Now, who's this?"

"C'ss."

General O'Neill walked into the room and made his way to the bed. Jon looked over his shoulder at the older man. "Do you know who this is?"

"J'ck." Danny's voice was stronger, as if he were surer of himself.

"See, you know us. No problems, right Doctor Cassie?."

The woman was smiling already and she nodded. "That's very good. We have a little speech problem, but that's probably only temporary. Maybe from the shock of traversing the wormhole." She held up a pencil. "What's this?"

"P'n."

"It's a pencil, but very close. Very, very close."

"So, what's the deal here, Cassie?" Jack asked from his post at the foot of Danny's bed.

"I'll have to check with Doctor Barrett, but from what I've learned in the last few hours about Danny here from his test results and his condition before entering the Stargate, we definitely have something to work from." She smiled at the two anxious O'Neill faces then looked at her patient. "Look, I'll leave you alone to talk for a minute." Cassie held up a warning finger. "Only a minute. I don't want you two to wear out our patient, okay?"

Jack smiled at her then looked down to where Jon and Danny were covertly holding hands. "Gottcha. Jon and I have to talk anyway." The younger man looked at him briefly, scowled, then nodded.

"Okay, no more than a minute, then." Cassie Fraiser left the bed's area and slid the curtain around the three of them for privacy."

Danny looked back and forth between the two men nervously. "T-t-t- ell." Danny struggled but words didn't want to come.

Jon and Jack exchanged glances. Jack grimaced. "Go ahead, tell him. He has the right to know."

Jon sighed. "I wasn't going too. He'll worry too much. He doesn't need this right now."

The older man shook his head. "Don't be an idiot. He'll just worry, won't you Danny?"

Danny gripped Jon's hand harder. "T-t-t-ell."

Jon frowned at his older self and sighed. Jack was right, and if something happened...well, Danny had a right to know. "We're going back after Daniel."

Danny frowned and opened his mouth. After a few seconds, "D-d-d-a-a- n ..."

Jack stepped a little closer in and hitched a hip onto the foot of the bed. He noticed that Danny didn't reach the end of it like his Daniel would have. He then reached up and grasped the near foot. "Yep, Paul okay'd us going." He shrugged. "I'm sorry to take Jon away from you, but I need him, and I think you'd want him to go." Danny nodded. "And we should be back within twenty four hours." Danny's eyes widened. Jack continued. "It won't be as nice and sweet as if you'd have done it. We'll probably lose the treaty, but none of us want to leave him there for much longer." Jack looked at Jon who was still seated by the head of the bed and holding the patient's hand. "He only took a few days worth of meds. If he has an attack..." The rest of the sentence remained unsaid.

Danny looked from Jack to Jon, who squeezed his hand. He nodded at Jon. "G-g-o-o, f-f-for D-d-d-a-a." He stopped mid word and looked angry, suspicious moisture growing in his eyes.

Jon squeezed the hand he was holding. "Okay, babe, I got you. We'll go get Daniel, then I come back and we'll get you fixed up."

Danny snorted his frustration.

"Hey, it'll be fine." Jack patted the foot under his hand comfortingly. "We get two of those Jackson brains working in tandem, we can solve anything. Can't we?"

Jon leaned down and kissed Danny. Then he whispered, "Yeahshuryabettcha."

Part 3  
Less than an hour later they were all back in Davis' office. Jon was seated next to Jack, Teal'c and Rya'c were across the table, and the two women flanked the General.

"Well, doctors, what did your test show?" Davis asked directly.

Barrett answered. "Danny is suffering from some amount of damage to the left side of the cerebral cortex. This is the portion of the brain that controls his language skills. "

"That's why he's having trouble speaking?" Jack asked. Jon frowned as he watched Cassie go to the far end of the table and turned on a switch. The table began to glow as it produced a view of a brightly lit hologram hovering above its surface.

"These are the results of the CT scan that we just performed." She turned and picked up a pointer from the table and insinuated it into the three dimensional form indicating some dark lines in the visual representation of Danny's brain. "You can see here where Danny's implant has tiny filaments that infiltrate the brain tissue." On the hologram, the implant was quite obvious where it had been surgically applied to the bones of the skull. The tiny black lines descended into the body of the brain where they ended in the darkened areas. "I surmise that the Asgard was trying to study his linguist talent by use of this computer relay." She turned the virtual brain to point out the darker spots on the greyish area of the brain cells. "These are damaged areas of the brain. We believe that the shock of going through the Stargate overloaded these filaments causing the damage. Apparently they burned the tissue with an electrical charge."

Jon sat stunned. Brain damage. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He felt Jack's hand on his arm.

Then he heard General Davis speak. "So our sending him through the Stargate caused this?"

"Yes sir."

"How much damage is there?" Jon asked in a subdued voice.

"That's unknown at this point. We still don't actually know how the brain works other than through electrical impulses."

"Is it ... is it permanent?" Jon managed to get out.

"We don't know that either, Jon." He heard Cassie's voice say to him.

Then Jack was next to him putting a glass in his hand. "Here, drink some water. You look like you're about to pass outs" He said gently.

"Brain damage is just a phrase," Barrett continued on inexorably. "The human brain is a marvelous mechanism. The damage to the burned areas is permanent, but other parts of the same portion are still intact and healthy. Physically he's fine. He can relearn how to access his skills." She attempted to sound upbeat. "This is not a death sentence by any means. We can only hope for the best."

Jon felt Jack's warm hand on his arm. "It'll be all right, Jon. You know how Daniel is. I'm betting Danny is just as tough as his dad."

Jon stood up knocked the older man's hand off his arm and backed up away from the table. "He's not his 'dad' and you know it. You're not my 'dad' either so stop with the shit, Jack." He was shaking with a rage that seemed to come from nowhere. "He's MY Danny, not yours! I waited fifteen years for him, and now he's hurt. Badly hurt. You can't fix him, I can't fix him, nobody can. We can only 'hope for the best'," he mimicked Barrett.

"Hope! Yeah, Jon, hope is all we've got here. All I've got too." Jack turned to face the angry younger man. "I hope that Danny recovers. I hope I can get to my Daniel on time. I hope he doesn't have an asthma attack. I hope he's got his meds. I hope they both survive whatever happens to them so that you and I can take care of them. It's all I've got right now. Hell, these people don't even want me to go through the damned gate." He glared around the table. "But it's the only way I can get him back, so I'm gonna go."

"Jon, we've called in two of the most qualified people on this planet to help out with Danny's case," Barrett said soothingly. " Cassie is calling in our best scientist to help as much as she can," she looked over at Cassie who nodded, then the doctor continued, "and I've been in contact with the foremost neurosurgeon in the field of brain trauma we know of."

Cassie left her position beside the desk and came over to Jon. "I've phoned Sam. She's flying in as we speak. Doctor Adams is coming in tomorrow from Bethesda Naval Hospital" The woman laid a hand on Jon's arm. "He will get better, and I'm betting he'll get back to normal."

"You got Carter to come?" Jack asked.

Cassie nodded. "I said Daniel needed her and she said she'd catch the next flight in."

Jon looked at the group. "What can Carter do?"

Jack nodded at Cassie. "She's the best computer hardware expert we know."

Barrett agreed. "I want her input on the actual mechanism that we're dealing with ... if it can be removed safely."

The younger O'Neill looked thoughtful, then he asked, "Has anyone talked to Danny about this? It is his brain after all."

"We've tried to tell him what we want to do, but he gets very frustrated because he can't reply. He almost had another seizure. We thought that if you were there it would help. You seem to be able to read the way he feels and communicate with him better." Cassie looked at him. "I also know he trusts you more than us."

"Meanwhile we have to extract Daniel from his captors," Paul commented. "The doctor won't be here until tomorrow. What do we need to do today?"

"We need to rescue Daniel," Jack said quickly and firmly.

"Indeed." He was seconded by Teal'c with an agreeing nod by Rya'c.

"I need to stay with Danny," Jon said just as firmly.

Paul kept silent, watching the byplay around the table. After all he couldn't argue with one Jack O'Neill, now he had two of them to deal with.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Why? Cause he can't communicate. I won't leave him like this." Jon met his older self's look with his own stubborn expression. "Just like he wouldn't leave you when you had the knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into your brain."

"I was conscious and walking."

"He's conscious too."

"You can't do anything for him."

"He couldn't do anything for you either, but he didn't stop trying."

"I need you on this team to rescue Daniel."

"I need to be here."

Teal'c finally spoke up. "This is doing nothing to assist either Danieljackson." He turned first to Jack then to Jon. "O'Neill is correct. You are needed to retrieve our Danieljackson from his captors. The Danieljackson in the infirmary is safe. The other is not. He risked much to assist in the treaty negotiations. Would you lose him, JonONeill, because of your irrational perceived guilt?"

Jon dropped his gaze to the floor. "No, but ... "

"There are no buts here, we either do or do not."

Jon wanted to run out of the room and down into the infirmary. He wanted to grab onto his Danny and hold him until he woke up. He wanted those blue eyes to look into his and he wanted to see that smile again. But he also knew that he had to help Daniel, the Daniel that he had loved twenty years ago before their lives were complicated by a certain Asgard scientist. "Let's go."

"I'm going too." Jack glared over at Paul Davis. "We need four to carry this off."

"Why should I let you go through the Stargate now?" Davis looked at him stubbornly.

"Cause if you don't 'let' me go, I'll pull rank on you, Brigadier General Davis."

"Very well, Major General O'Neill. What if you get killed? What do I tell the President?"

Jack grinned at him lopsidedly. "Tell him you just saved the taxpayers a whole lot of money on a Major General's pension. He'll be thrilled."

_____

Daniel was beginning to feel worried. He was lying down in his cell for the moment trying to concentrate on his breathing. The last asthma attack had been exhausting both mentally and physically. The hot humid climate on the planet was a problem for his lungs to handle at best, but the strong odors that the natives wore as body perfume was adding even more difficulty to his over burdened breathing. He had found that lying on his left side and taking fairly shallow breaths was helping a little, but it wouldn't work for much longer. He needed his allergy pills, he needed his bronchial dialator, and he needed Jack.

He'd known that things had seemed too easy at first. All he had to do was come to the tea party, play negotiator with two different political parties, and go home. It should have been over in eight hours maximum; but by his watch he'd been here more than thirty-six. Jack was now probably standing on Davis' desk threatening poor Paul with death and dismemberment.

All had gone well with the discussions until the sacred valley had entered into the debate. Like most diplomatic problems the crux was fairly simple. It was the water. One side deemed it holy, the other needed it for their herds. One side was urban, the other agrarian. The polite talk had become demanding, the logic had become emotions, and the whole scenario went to hell in a handbasket. He'd seen it happen a thousand times, and still didn't get it. Both sides wanted this treaty, both sides needed the water, but neither would allow the other access. The animals would pollute it, but the goddess doesn't use it. Go figure.

He started another coughing jag. Using the meditation techniques that he'd learned from Teal'c long ago, he managed to get it under control. But he could literally hear himself wheezing as he gasped for his next breath. If help didn't come soon, he knew that he'd die of asphyxiation all by himself.

\-----

It was late at night on the planet's surface when the Stargate came to life. As soon as all four of the team cleared the pedestal, the SGC closed down the wormhole. The two enemy soldiers never stood a chance as they were zatted into unconsciousness.

The four dark figures slipped silently into the woods on either side of the road that led to the conference hall. They moved swiftly through the trees and brush until they reached the large ornate building. They tucked into the niches that lined the outermost wall. The largest man of the four gave directional hand signals. Two of them took his directions and assumed their positions on either side of the entrance to the edifice. Then, the slightly built older leader came out of the shadows and approached the doorway. There he inserted a small metallic instrument into the lock's aperture.

Within a few moments, a quiet click was heard and the portal swung slightly open. The two younger members entered first, their speed a tactical advantage. The leader followed them as quickly as he could and the larger fourth figure entered last and carefully pulled the door closed behind him so that it was apparently still secure.

The four men then proceeded down the long hallway, the two scouts insuring that they were not observed by the guards that must be on station somewhere within the building. The third man hurried, his slight limp barely noticeable, the larger fourth guarding his six. As they reached an intersection of corridors, the largest man indicated that they should turn to the left.

Following the hallway to its terminus put them at another choice of direction. The big man indicated to the right. At the end, stood the darkened conference room. The two went in together, scanning the area for any guards, then proceeded through the space to the single door. As they made their way through the narrow, black hall, they could see a light shining from under a smaller, plain looking door directly in front of them. One of the young men pulled another lock pick from the back of his gloved hand and went to work on the mechanism. Another small click and the door opened inwards.

There, lying on a single cot was the semi-unconscious form of Daniel Jackson. His gasping wheeze could be heard from the door way. With a whispered curse, the older leader of the group stepped forward to roll the supine form onto his left side. There he checked the ill man for vitals.

Jack spoke softly to him. "Daniel, come on buddy. Talk to me."

The ill man managed to open his eyes long enough to take in the blackened features of his savior. "Jack?"

"How ya doing, Daniel?"

"Pea'cy," was all that Jackson could manage.

"C'mon, let's blow this popsicle stand." He slipped an arm under Daniel's shoulder and back, lifting him to a sitting position. Reaching into his pocket, Jack produced an emergency inhaler, slipped it into Daniel's mouth, and activated the medicinal flow.

The other man managed a shallow breath to get the medicine started, then pushed it back. He started coughing as soon as the chemicals hit his system. Jack could only hold him firmly in place.

Jon was getting antsy at the doorway, "Jack," he hissed. "That's gonna set off every guard in the place."

The older man looked up from supporting Daniel's shaking form. "They've been hearing him cough for a day and a half now. They probably won't even notice." He presented the small container to his lover again. "One more for the road?"

Daniel nodded and grasped the inhaler again, taking in another puff of the meds that would expand his lungs. He coughed some more, then gagged, and spat out a clot of mucus.

"Better?"

Daniel could only nod gratefully at his rescuers.

Jack stood up and pulled the weakened man to a standing position. "Can you walk?"

Daniel nodded. "With help I can," he managed to gasp at his rescuers.

"That's why I brought the Jaffa Express."

Teal'c moved forward from his position outside the door and slipped his strong arm around Daniel's other shoulder. "I have you my friend. I will get you to the Stargate, never fear."

Jackson could only nod his thanks and relief.

"Jon, you've got point. Rya'c, our flank. Move out," Jack said grimly. "I'll take six. Zat anything that tries to stop us."

The team once again melded quickly and silently. Daniel tried to keep his footing but soon lost what wind he'd recovered, and Teal'c scooped him up in his arms for easier transportation. They'd made it to the main hallway before anyone saw them. Jon and Rya'c made quick work of the two unlucky guards with their zatniketels, and Jack stunned two more as they beat it out the doorway. He turned just long enough to slam the great doors closed on any other pursuit, then jammed them with some decorative carvings that had been arranged around the entrance.

Jon took the lead. His physical conditioning and natural speed allowed him to set a quick pace for the others to follow. Teal'c came next, grimly holding on to his friend's weakened body and trotting his best speed over the uneven terrain.

Jack was still moving forward doggedly. He noticed Rya'c had slipped his position back a bit to cover him if he needed it. His artificial knee was screaming at him to rest but he knew that they had to get to the gate without wasting any time. If this was the price of Daniel being all right then he'd have the damned thing replaced again.

The gate was now visible to the group as they topped a small rise in the road they were following. Teal'c was beginning to breathe heavily from his burden. Rya'c moved up alongside his father to assist with the sick man. Jon was rapidly approaching the DHD. Then Jack saw movement in the vegetation to the right of the Stargate.

As Jon trotted up to the DHD, he caught a glimpse of movement in the foliage surrounding the Stargate. He fired his zat into the trees, setting off a sparking of the limbs and leaves that were in the way. As he reached the control device, he could hear more zat fire coming from the others and some interesting ray beam sounds from the enemy.

He concentrated on hitting the right symbols

The wormhole kawooshed outwards and Jon sent the GDO code. He could hear the others coming up behind him and the resulting firefight. He ducked down behind the DHD for some cover then looked up to see the others coming toward him.Rya'c's was now carrying Daniel in a fireman's carry over his shoulder. Jack was truly limping, trying his damnedest to keep running. And Teal'c was following last guarding their six.

Then suddenly, from an angle, an enemy's ray gun blast hit Rya'c on his free shoulder, causing him to stumble and fall. Daniel seemed to curl up in a ball as he hit the ground, rolling forwards a few feet. Jack made a passing grab and snagged his partner's arm, jerking him up onto his own shoulder. The two older men managed to stumble, staggering and falling into the wormhole.

Teal'c stopped long enough to assist his son to his feet and the two Jaffa warriors fought on into the blinding blue light. Jon stayed long enough to fire a few covering shots before he himself stepped backwards into the maelstrom of the energy flux.

As Jon reentered the SGC gate room, he stepped into controlled madness. The alarm klaxons were sounding, the SFs were at high alert with weapons drawn, and medical teams were pounding into the rooms with gurneys flying. Davis was shouting orders. Jack was doggedly doing CPR on Daniel's unconscious form while Barrett was grabbing for the ambu bag. Fraiser was ripping the shirt off of Rya'c's seated form while Teal'c kept his son in a sitting position. Finally the wormhole snapped shut with its distinctive clap. Within moments the two injured men were in route to the infirmacy, leaving the rest of the group behind.

Jon looked around with a wry grimace. "There's no place like home."

Davis stepped up beside him. "Miss it, do you?"

Jon only shrugged. "How's Danny?"

"Still in and out. He asked after you once, but he lost consciousness soon after."

Davis indicated where Jack was still sitting on the gate ramp and looked at him in askance. The two men went over to where he was. "Are you all right, General?"

The older man dragged a shaking hand up his face and into his white hair. "Yeah, I guess."

Teal'c joined them after the medical corpsmen pushed the two gurneys out the door.

Jack looked up and managed a small smile for his old friend. "Right on schedule."

The big Jaffa nodded at his old commander. "Indeed."

Jack turned to look at Teal'c. "How's Rya'c?"

"He is injured but conscious," his old friend answered. "It is a burn of the skin, nothing more."

"And Daniel?" Jon asked gently.

Jack shook his head. "I honestly don't know. I think he was breathing. I hope so."

Jon reached for his older self and he hoped inconspicuously clasped the other man's arm to help support him. He looked at Jack closely. He appeared exhausted and only shook his head at the offer. "I can't walk."

Jon immediately dropped to the floor next to him. "Jack?"

"It's my knee. I fucked it up again in that last dash to the gate." He looked up at Jon, "Can you help me?" The older man said forlornly. "I'd really like to get to the clinic about now."

Davis turned and shouted for another gurney. Jon knelt down next to him and put his hands on Jack's shoulders. "Are you in pain?"

The silver head shook negatively. "Not really. I'm too tired to hurt. I just want to be with Daniel."

They heard the sound of wheels on concrete. The two O'Neills eyes met. "I understand exactly how you feel." Jon agreed with him. "Let's go."

Part 4  
Retired Brigadier General Samantha Carter approached the security gate at the SGC with a smile and nerves. She was anxious to get down to the medical section and see what Daniel had done to himself this time that she was needed for. Her friend had the knack for finding the most impossible scenarios and getting caught in them between the rock and the hardware.

The General, well, Jack would probably be there too ... just hanging around. She knew Paul Davis well enough that she realized that he'd not be able to deny Daniel Jackson anything. A smile tugged on her lips as she flipped her ID card to the Security Forces Sergeant on duty. She wondered if Daniel even knew that Paul still carried a small crush on him, just as she did on Jack O''Neill.

Entering the Command Section, she could look down onto the Stargate room. It was obvious that something had just occurred. The SFs were still checking and clearing their weapons. Maintenance was in the process of inspecting and insuring that the gate's mechanisms were functional and undamaged.

A technician hurried into the command center and was caught up short by her presence. "Uh, ma'am? General Carter, what are you doing here?"

She had to smile at his confusion. "Doctor Fraiser called me. I thought that I'd come here first to let General Davis know I'd arrived before I went to the infirmary."

"Well, ma'am, that's where the Generals are at." The young Airman had regained his composure and sat the documentation down on the antique wooden desk in the office. "You're uh, welcome to wait here ... or ... "

"I'll go up, thank you," she nodded. "I know the way."

"Yes ma'am," the tech returned her nod as she left. "I'm sure General Davis will be pleased to see you."

Sam continued her way into the clinic, nodding hello to the few people who remembered her from her own years as the Commander of the SGC. As she neared the clinic, she could hear some shouted commands in a female voice and saw a flurry of activity. They were doing CPR on someone. One of the techs was doing compressions, and a young woman that she couldn't see clearly was using an Ambu bag.

There was the sound of a straight whine from the monitor. "WHERE'S THE ENDOTRACHEAL TUBE? Get him tubed or we'll lose him." A man appeared with the apparatus and the bag was pulled as the tube was put into place

Then she saw a pair of defibulator paddles being deployed.

"GIVE ME ROOM! STAND BACK!" The body jumped on the table, there was a flurry of beeps and then another straight tone. "HIT HIM AGAIN!"

"DAMN IT! CASSIE! AGAIN!"

Another jolt was delivered to the patient. There was a brief pause, then the sound of monitors beeping steadily filled the air. Voices continued but on a more normal tone.

"There, that's got him." A satisfied sigh seemed to hover for a moment. "Good job, everyone. Let's get this cleaned up and him settled."

Sam couldn't see what was happening in the center of the room because of the knot of people standing around the small wheeled bed. But she could see her old Commander, Jack O'Neill sitting white faced on the side of the gurney being supported by Paul Davis. Both of them had their eyes glued to the action. Only a few feet away, Teal'c and Rya'c were standing like ebony statues also watching the activity. On the other side of the room, one man who had to be Jon O'Neill, was sitting on the side of a bed with his gripping the hand of an apparently unconscious person who lay unnoticing of the excitement.

Carter made her way to the side of the two men she had expected to be there. As she got there, she could see Jack was extremely upset. "Jack, Paul, what's going on?"

"It's Daniel. The doctors are trying to keep him alive," Paul Davis answered tersely. "They just got back from an S & R."

"That's Daniel?" Sam could now see one of the doctors leaning back for a moment to catch her breath. It was Cassie. She looked exhausted. "But ... I thought I was coming here to help ... "

"You are, but it's a little more complicated than we told you," Paul said softly.

She gazed around the room. "Why am I not surprised?"

Finally, the monitors began to settle into a regular rhythm and the group of people began to break up. The woman Sam knew as Susan Barrett stepped back to see to her other patients. When Cassie saw her co-mom, Sam, she came over and hugged her tightly, then looked down at Jack.

"He's going to be all right, Uncle Jack." She leaned over and kissed the older man on the cheek. "We got him back."

Jack nodded and wiped his hands across his face. Then he said gruffly, "He wouldn't dare die on you Cassie."

She put her arms around O'Neill. "You're right, and I'd never forgive him for that. He did it to Mom often enough."

Paul turned to Sam to give the other two a moment of privacy. "Glad you could make it, Sam."

"So am I. But all this ... " She motioned to the corpsmen cleaning up around the area of excitement, and Doctor Barrett still checking on the now breathing form of Daniel Jackson. "This is not why I'm here ... is it?"

"No, this was unexpected." Paul indicated the other two still forms that were on the other side of the clinic. "That is what we contacted you for."

Cassie turned back to her other patient. "Okay, Uncle Jack. What did you do to your knee this time?"

Sam and Paul smiled at each other as they heard Jack talking to the young doctor.

"Just one more moment." Carter nodded toward the Jaffa contingency. "I want to say hello over there."

By now, a senior nurse was tending the wounded Ryal'c for his burn, his father watching from the sidelines. Sam walked over and clasped her old friend's arm. "Teal'c? You're the best surprise of all today."

"Indeed, Samantha, as are you. The others were not so good."

"How are you, Rya'c?" She looked at her old friend's son as the nurse finished dressing the wound and left with a friendly nod.

"It is a minor inconvenience, Generalcarter," the young man assured her. "I will return to my health in a short period." He smiled at her concern. "It is Dannyjackson that you need concentrate on."

"But it looks as though Doctor Barrett has him well in hand." They turned to see the gurney being moved into one of the curtained alcoves.

"No, it is the other who needs your assistance." Teal'c indicated the pair that Paul had earlier.

"But I don't understand. Who are they?"

"Come on, Sam." Cassie came over and slipped an arm around her waist. "Let me introduce you to the real reason that you're here."

As Sam was taken across the room to meet the other two men, she could see a corpsman had gone over to Jack and helped him back up on the gurney. As he was being taken for tests, she could see him talking to the young airman who stopped for a moment by the unconscious Daniel's side. Doctor Barrett smiled and nodded at the retired general before shooing them on their way.

Cassie led Sam over to the bedside. She immediately recognized Jon O'Neill as Jack's younger clone. "Hello, Jon."

"General Carter, it's good to see you." He stood up to greet his superior officer, then he turned slightly to show her who was in the bed. She caught her breath in surprise as she recognized a very young, very familiar shape lying unconscious on the hospital bed. "This is Danny Jackson," he continued. "He's Daniel's clone."

~~~

The following morning Brigadier General Davis, Teal'c, Rya'c, Carter, and Fraiser were gathered around the briefing table in the general's office. They were engaged in casual conversation awaiting the arrival of Doctor Barrett and Jon O'Neill. Sam and Cassie were going through the folder that held all of Danny's results from the tests that were performed after his return from the wormhole. Teal'c sat next to the two women listening to their commentary.

Sam finally closed the documents and shook her head. "This is amazing. Loki took Daniel's DNA more than 10 years ago? Why didn't we know?"

"How would we know, Samantha?" Teal'c asked with a raised eyebrow. "The Asgard are far above us in the scientific fields. We didn't know when O'Neill was cloned either."

She nodded. "It just seems that Loki waited a long time to create this clone ... "

The door opened and Susan Barrett came in, her demeanor unhappy, closely followed by Jon O'Neill.

General Davis nodded at her and indicated the coffee pot and cups sitting on the table against the wall. "How are you, Doctor?"

She managed a smile. "I'm fine, thank you, sir. General O'Neill is just being a little ... uncooperative."

Sam nodded. "He's been famous for that for years."

"Other than that, Doctor Jackson is doing quite well. The IV steroids are reducing the inflammation in his lungs, and what injuries he sustained in the rescue are minimal." She sighed. "General O'Neill, on the other hand, damaged his prosthetic knee. He'll be in a wheelchair for a while until we determine whether or not he'll need it replaced."

"And how is Dannyjackson?" Rya'c asked.

The Doctor frowned and took a sip of her coffee. "Danny remains the same. He's sleeping a lot, which is normal for a brain trauma. He's responsive to stimuli but still suffers from aphasia ... he's having trouble putting words together to communicate with." She shook her head. "He responds most to when Jon or General O'Neill speaks. He can apparently hear and comprehend, but can't reach out successfully. So he becomes very frustrated when he's awake."

Sam Carter opened the folder in front of her again and turned to a series of Danny's skull. "Looking at these x-rays, these filaments seem to invade specific areas of his brain."

Barrett nodded. "Yes, they are very specific. This is the area that controls speech and languages. It's as if that's what Loki was pinpointing."

"So, his main problems seem to be centered in these areas?"

"He seems to have trouble forming words and sentences" Cassie agreed. "Jon can pretty much translate for him, but Danny still gets really frustrated with himself."

"Knowing Daniel, I'm sure he does." Sam shook her head. "I can't imagine what he's going through. This must be terrible for him." She looked up at the other two women. "So what can I do to help?"

"We want to remove the hardware from him entirely; at least that's what I'm hoping we can do."

The door to the briefing room opened to allow the entrance to a man wearing Air Force dress blues complete with eagles and physician's insignia. General Davis greeted him. "You must be Doctor Adams."

The older grey haired man looked around the room and said in a firm voice, "Thanks for the invitation. This is quite a little organization you've got here."

"You don't know the half of it Pete." Barrett smiled and stood up to shake his hand. "I'm glad you could make it." She nodded to General Davis. "This is Pete Adams. He's an old friend of mine and a damned fine neurosurgeon. If anyone can help Danny Jackson, it's him."

"I'll certainly try my best," he responded to the praise with a smile. "Show me what you've got."

~~~

"So you're telling me that this young man, this clone, has a computer relay in his brain so an alien could use it to do experiments on him?"

"Yes, Pete, we are."

"That's the damnedest thing I've ever heard of."

"You can see the scans, Doctor." Cassie put in.

"Yes, yes I can. And you want to just pull it all out?"

"That would be the best case scenario," General Davis put in.

Adams started picking his way through the series of x-rays that they hand been studying. "Was he created with this thing in his head or was it implanted?"

Jon O'Neill looked up to comment. "Danny remembers Loki put it in his head at the very beginning." O'Neill took a breath. "He has really bad nightmares from his initial preparation as a test subject. He told me that Loki would strap him down so the experiments wouldn't be ruined."

"So this was implanted while he was conscious?" The doctor appeared aghast at the very thought.

"Yeah, I think so. I'd kinda forgotten about it. He keeps his hair long to hide it, and the skin actually kind of grows over it." The younger O'Neill shook his head. "It embarrasses him."

"Well, it very nearly killed him." Barrett said grimly. "He was going on a mission to help rescue the original Doctor Jackson. He had a seizure both times he experienced the physical transition through the wormhole. The metal filaments act as a sort of conductor into the brain tissue. Each time it burned a bit of that tissue. We think that's why he's having the aphasia and the convulsions."

General Carter nodded in agreement and spoke up for the first time. "That makes sense. So how can I help?"

General Davis spoke. "Doctor Adams here is the top neurosurgeon in the military from Bethesda Naval Hospital. You're our expert on this technology. Ideally, the implant should be removed altogether ... if you two can figure out a way to do it without killing him in the process."

"Of course I'll be more than happy to help any way I can. You know that," Carter said quickly. "It just seems so risky."

Barrett nodded. "It is risky, but so is leaving it in place. Daniel can't go through the gate again, that's quite obvious, even if the General would let him. Danny will want to, I'm very sure of that, but he won't be able to with this implant in place." She glanced over at Adams who returned her look thoughtfully. "The mechanism seems really straight forward. It appears to be the equivalent of a USB port just under the scalp and penetrating the skull. From there the filaments radiate into the brain tissue." She shrugged. "It seems simple from here, but I'm no neurosurgeon and I'm certainly no computer hardware expert."

Carter thought a moment. "From what I can see here, you're exactly correct. It appears to be a hook up for hardware. But what damage will removing the wires cause? And what about the damage to the brain tissue already?" She shook her head. "Mechanically, it's not a problem. It will hinge on what it does to him, and how much damage has already been done by his uh, exposure."

Adams nodded. "Her concerns are correct. I'll need to look at these scans and X-Rays to see what I can determine. I also want to rerun the EEG." The man looked at the people around the table. "What exactly is this young man's expertise? Why is he so important?"

"Besides the fact that he deserves a hell of a lot better than this?" Jon said bitterly.

"Doctor Daniel Jackson holds triple PhDs in Archaeology, Egyptology and Linguistics." Davis said quietly. " He speaks and writes 23 known languages and he has one of the most amazing gifts for intuitive logic for thinking outside the box I have ever seen. He's also our liaison with several alien races."

O'Neill nodded. "When we discovered that he had been cloned, it was like the universe had given us a great big present for no apparent reason." He looked around the table at the several amused faces that were trying unsuccessfully not to smile. "Well, it's true! Not like me, though I might be of some use to you here later on."

Adams glanced around, looking confused. "Like you?"

"Sure, I'm just a jet jockey. Why Loki bothered with me I'll never know."

"I don't understand." Adams looked confused.

Jon looked at him. "If you need any research for this thing just ask. I'm a clone too."

The doctor looked at him in surprise. "You are? Of who? Is he here too?"

Barrett looked at Adams. "Yes, he is. Would it make a difference?"

"If I can get comparative studies of the two sets of individuals it might help." He shook his head. "This is amazing. Who knows about this?"

"Only the people in this room, doctor." Davis looked at him warningly. "That's why your security rating was so important. This is on a need to know basis, you do understand?"

"Oh, yes. Of course."

"You do know that there's one person who hasn't had a say in this," Jon said warningly. "Has anyone asked Danny what he wants?"

Cassie looked at him in surprise. "Why wouldn't he want the surgery?"

"For crying out loud, it's his brain. Maybe he doesn't want to take the risk," Jon pointed out. "Maybe, just maybe, he'd rather be a live person than a dead linguist? You said that he'd probably learn to talk again without the surgery. He just wouldn't be able to go ... out there."

"Don't you think he'd want to?" Davis asked quietly.

"I don't know, nobody has asked him."

"What if he cannot answer, Jononeill?"

Doctor Barrett nodded. "Jon has a point."

"Who's listed as his next of kin?" Cassie asked.

"Jon O'Neill," The General answered.

"But is he competent to make this decision?" Adams pushed. "And is he old enough? You have his age listed as 18 years old."

Jon looked around the table. How much did he trust these people? Well, besides Teal'c. He only knew Barrett professionally, hadn't seen Cassie in fifteen years, didn't know Adams at all, and what was Paul's stake in this other than to have two Daniel Jacksons at his beck and call. But he knew what he had to do. He had to ask Danny.

Part 5  
Jon quietly entered the clinic. It was late afternoon and he'd been stuck in the meeting with everyone trying to make decisions about Danny that he thought should best be left up to his partner.

It was deceptively still in the medical area. Jack had gone somewhere, probably to get dinner at the dining facility. Barrett had given him some freedom to travel around the SGC, at least within reason. Even in a wheel chair he was quite mobile. Daniel was still deeply asleep with some help from painkillers as he was still intubated. Doctor Barrett, or Susan as he was beginning to know her, said that she wanted to keep him on the machine until tomorrow morning. Even though he'd been still breathing when they'd found him, the rough handling the older man had endured during the firefight back to the wormhole and the trip had just about killed him.

And Danny, well, Danny had a knack of being asleep when he wanted to be. It must have been a defense mechanism the youngster developed when he was still in Loki's lab. As Jon approached the hospital bed, he could see the blue eyes opening at his footsteps.

"Hey." He smiled down at the expressive face.

"J-j-on?"

The Captain reached for Danny's hand and it was freely given.

"How are you doing? They treating you okay?"

Danny nodded.

"Say, it for me? Please?"

Danny looked up at him in frustration, and then blinked as if thinking hard. "Fu-fi-ne."

Jon grinned at him and perched on the side of the bed. "We've been talking about you."

Curiosity was immediate. "m-me?"

"That's right, number one on the hot topic list." Jon leaned down and whispered, "Will the great Danny Jackson beat the odds again? Can he succeed? Can true love carry him along to bigger and better things? Will Jon O'Neill beat Jack out in the premature grey hair race?"

Danny giggled, then snorted when he inhaled.

Jon looked mock horrified, then reached down and gently slid his hand through the ruffled dark blond hair. His fingers made contact with the skin-covered lump at the crown of his skull. Jon leaned down even closer to the shell-shaped ear. "I love you, babe. You know that, right?"

The younger man nodded, then looked at him curiously. "W-w-w-a-t?"

"What? What what?"

"W-w-wat y-y-oo s-s-s-ay?" He grimaced with the effort of those few simple words.

"Oh, that." Jon pulled loose from Danny's hair and took his hand in his own. He looked seriously down into the blue eyes. He took a deep breath. "Well, Doctor Barrett called in a specialist for you, a neurosurgeon." He watched as Danny absorbed the surgeon part of the word. "And they brought Sam in to consult with him."

The expressive eyebrows arched up at the news forming a question mark. Jon plowed on.

"They're talking about trying to remove the, uh, thing from your head. That's what they think caused the seizures."

Danny looked pensive then nodded.

"They're going to do more tests and then this guy, Doctor Adams, along with Doctor Barrett, Cassie, and Sam are all going to sit down and talk about it." He squeezed the slender hand that he held. Idly he wondered when Danny would hit his last growth spurt. Then he said in all seriousness. "Danny?" The eyes fastened on him. "Danny, if you don't want this ... well, it's up to you in the end. You understand, right?"

The fair head nodded. "uh-uh-ner-st-st-nd. F-f-fix me."

"Wait a minute. They don't have to do the surgery for you to get well," Jon said firmly. "You can get therapy and you'll be talking in no time." He smiled at his partner. "I don't care about your extra parts."

Danny looked at him seriously then shook his head. "T-t-hen wh-wh-ie?"

"It's the wormhole, babe," Jon said honestly. "You can't go through the wormhole again. When we came out the other side, well, that's when everything happened."

Danny meaningfully looked over at Daniel's still form lying on the other side of the room.

"Hey, it wasn't your fault! You didn't know. None of us did." Jon gently turned the expressive face back to him. "We got him back. Cassie said he was going to be just fine. He's just not going to be going back through the Stargate." At Danny's mute question, he laughed. "No, not doctor's orders, Jack's. He was royally pissed that Daniel hadn't told him that he was going."

The youngster smiled.

"Yeah, me too." Jon gazed into the other man's eyes. "I would have said the same thing, so don't you go getting any ideas from his bad influence. I want you alive and in one piece. I don't care if you never go through again. That's not important. You're well being is."

Danny grasped Jon's hand with surprising strength. "B-b-b-u-t I-I-I doo."

"You do what?"

Danny closed his eyes and concentrated. "Wan-n-na go Chappai."

"But I want you alive, babe. I want you alive and safe."

"And so do we, Jon. Don't you worry about that!" Jack O'Neill had quietly rolled up behind them in his rubber wheeled chair. "Sorry I missed the briefing. My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail."

"They were doing tests on you." The younger man shrugged.

"They were keeping me from being there. But that's okay. I know that you stuck up for Danny. What was decided?"

"Nothing yet. I may be listed as his next of kin, but it's his decision as far as I'm concerned."

Jack nodded. "Good, I'm glad you made that clear ... to everyone." He smiled at Danny who motioned toward the older Jackson's bed. "Daniel's gonna be okay, don't you worry. Doc is keeping him sedated while he's got the tube in but I think that's gonna stop tomorrow. And no, he's never going through the Stargate again. It wasn't fair for them to ask him. This is the second time it's happened and they knew that it might." Jack looked down at Danny. "As for you, young man, you're much more important than some flyboy or jarhead that has to go gallivanting all over the place to prove his worth." He nodded at their joined hands. "Looks like you've got more pressing business here just keeping this one straight."

"W-w-w-it, I wa-wa-nt to geet fi-ix-xi-t." Danny struggled to get the sentence out. He was breathless from his efforts when he stopped.

"Look, Danny." Jon got his attention. "I, of all people, know that you want to be fixed. But you're talking brain surgery here; something that's very dangerous. It could work, or it could kill you, or it could just leave you a vegetable. I don't want you to do this just 'cause you think that I want you to, or Paul, or anybody." He glanced at Jack, who smiled and nodded at them.

"I think I hear Daniel. I'll be over there if you need me." The older man excused himself, rolled his wheelchair back away from them and pulled the curtains closed behind him, giving them their privacy.

Jon took the opportunity to lean down and kiss Danny, first on the forehead, then on the lips. "Look, I love you. Now, like this. I don't want to lose you. You're the answer to all my prayers. If you come with a computer link, or with scars, that just makes you that much more precious to me. Do you understand?"

Danny nodded, and reached to touch Jon's face. He took a deep breath and spoke slowly. "I love Jon, al-l-lways l-l-l-ov Jon." He blinked as if concentrating. "Must bee fix."

Jon nodded and wiped his face. For some reason it was damp. Danny reached up and smoothed the tears from his eyes. "Luv Jon."

They could hear voices outside the curtained cubical. Jon recognized them as Jack, Barrett, Cassie, and Sam. There was a new male voice also. Adams. Then the curtain pushed back.

Barrett smiled in at them. "Hi ya? How are you two doing?"

They both looked at the group. Danny shied away a bit at the crowd, but Jon held him steady. "It's okay, buddy." The youngster looked to Jon, who smiled at him encouragingly. "Everyone here wants to help you."

Adams stepped forward. "Hi Danny. I'm Doctor Adams. Everyone's told me a lot about you."

Danny blinked at him, but didn't smile.

"I'd like to examine your head to look at this implant I've heard so much about." Adams didn't move, just kept talking. "I've seen lots of pictures, but I think that seeing something with my own eyes is important."

Danny blinked again, then nodded, giving his permission. As Adams stepped over to the bed, Jon took both of his hands and helped him sit up and turn so the doctor could reach the implant. Then Danny saw Sam for the first time.

Carter had been watching from the group as Adams approached the patient. She'd seen Danny at a distance but hadn't really talked to him, not knowing exactly what to say. It was an odd concept, cloning. She'd never actually felt comfortable with Jon, and wasn't sure about this Danny person either. Then he smiled shyly at her. She had to smile back. "Hi Danny. It's nice to meet you at last."

Danny took one of his hands from Jon and reached out to her. She instinctively stepped forward.

She hadn't really been connected to this experience until this point. It had been ten years since she'd seen Jack's clone, Jon. It had been five years since she'd seen Jack or Daniel, but for some reason unknown to her, this young man reached out and grabbed her by the heart strings. Maybe it was because he looked so young. She would have had grandkids his age if she'd ever married and had children. Perhaps it was because he was so beautiful with the crystal blue eyes, honey-colored hair, and silken looking skin. Or just because he was Daniel as she never knew him but always pictured him in her mind's eye. Sam was transported back twenty some odd years to an ancient dusty pyramid and the vision of a young man with stars in his eyes telling her about spatial drift between planets. The eyes then had been this blue, and the unexpected smile just as mesmerizing. She stepped forward to the bed and gripped the slender long fingered hand and fell in love all over again with the vision. She had to help, she had no choice.

Adams took her movement as a cue that he could approach also. Smiling easily, he stepped up to the bedside. Jon slipped his butt up on the bed beside Danny to give the man room, then he tugged his partner up into a sitting position so that Adams could get close enough to examine the youngster.

Danny was looking at Sam with warmth in his expression. "H-hu-hu-lo, S-s-am." He grimaced at the awkward words. "Yoou h-hel-p?"

"Yes, Danny. I'm going to help Doctor Adams." Sam squeezed his hand. "I'm going to do everything in my power to help get you well." She smiled a teary smile. "I...we didn't even know you existed. I'm so happy to meet you."

"M-me-ee too, Sa-sa-am." He sighed, then startled as Doctor Adams touched his head.

"I'm sorry, Danny," the older man said softly. "Did I hurt you?"

"Nn-no." He turned to the physician. "S-s-so-rry."

"I think you surprised him," Jon said softly. He had been watching the youngster's interaction with Sam and he felt an illogical flash of jealousy. "He doesn't have a good history with medical procedures and things."

"So, I understand." Adams nodded. "Danny, I promise you, I will try not to hurt you." He looked pensive. "And if I think I'm going to, I'll tell you ahead of time, okay?"

Danny nodded. "O-o-oky." He looked around at the three people he knew held his future in their hands. He could only trust them ... and hope for the best.

Adams finished his exam and moved around to Danny's side. "All right then," he said with a smile. "It looks like it will be a fairly straightforward operation. We can do the procedure tomorrow morning." He glanced at Jon and then looked back at Danny. "I'm going to go in through the skull where the mechanism is implanted, remove the port and then work on getting the filaments out without doing any more damage to the surrounding tissue. If we see anything untoward, we'll stop there. If it's going as expected, we'll continue until everything is removed. Then we'll close the opening in the bone with a new ceramic material that I've had lots of luck with. It imitates the bone and I can shape it to fit exactly so that the skull should just anchor to the plate naturally." He smiled at his patient. It won't cure your aphasia right away. The brain will have to reconnect the nerves and synapses and that will take some time. But the foreign body will be gone and healing should proceed well." He shifted his position until Danny had to look him in the eye. "That sound okay to you?"

The boy nodded. Jon smiled at him.

"Good, I'll see you in the morning." He glanced at Jon's worried face, "Everything will be fine, we'll get this thing out and you'll be back to normal in no time at all."

~~~

The surgery was set for early in the morning. Jon had spent the night sleeping on a chair in the room with Danny. He stood nervously and watched when the nurse came to shave Danny's head. Adams wanted nothing in the room that could possibly contaminate the wound that he would be making. When he'd been told, Danny had only tried to smile bravely and nod with understanding. Jon had doubted that he would have been so brave. He stepped back to make room for her to work.

Danny sat up sideways on the bed as the nurse put the tray down with the instruments that she was going to use. "Hi," she said pleasantly. "My name is Angela and I'm going to get you prepped for surgery." She plugged in the clippers and clicked then on. He managed a tremulous smile as she patted him on the shoulder. "Its okay sweetie, it'll grow back quickly. I promise."

Jon pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. Danny gripped his proffered hand, looking down at him. When the vibrating instrument made contact with the nape of his neck, a tear rolled unheralded down his cheek.

"Hey, there," Jon whispered. "It's all right. You'll just look like a marine for a couple of weeks." As the long hair fell onto the sheets in clumps, Jon moved around to give the nurse ample room. His fingers played with Danny's hands, intertwining with them, stroking the delicate knuckles, to keep them both occupied.

After a few minutes, the nurse was through. She picked up her equipment and pulled the top sheet with the loose hair off the bed. She smiled at them saying, "I'll be right back" and left them alone.

Jon laughed nervously. "You look about eight years old now," he gently teased the younger man. "I had a hair cut just like that then." He stroked the bare skull gently, assiduously avoiding touching the now quite obvious protrusion of the computer hardware.

Danny reached up and touched it carefully, then looked at Jon. "Uh- ug-ly."

"No, babe. You're not ugly. It's just a bump. Soon it will be gone. Doc Barrett says there will be some scarring but they're gonna fix you up so that it won't be able to see anything at all."

Danny looked at him doubtfully as he explored the thing. Jon took his hand in his and pulled it to his lips to kiss the fingers. He glanced at the closed door behind them and bent down to kiss his lover on the lips. "I'll be waiting for you, sweetheart. I'll be there when you wake up."

The youngster could only nod. Jon kissed him again then pulled away slowly as he heard the door open.

"Well, are we all ready?" The nurse came back in with an orderly and a gurney. She looked over at Jon. "Captain, its time for you to go. Danny and I have a date with some people. Don't we honey?"

Jon stepped up to the bed one more time and took Danny's hand in his. "I'll be waiting for you, babe. Just relax and let the experts do their jobs."

Danny nodded, and squeezed Jon's hand tightly before releasing his grip. He could see worry in his partner's eyes. He tried to smile bravely but failed, only managing a frightened grin.

Angela said brightly. "Come on then, let's get you situated.

She, and the medic she introduced as Kyle, helped him over to the gurney. When he lay down, she quickly and efficiently used a syringe to inject something into the IV port. "This will relax you a little bit, so you're not so tense." She looked down at the childlike eyes. "Don't worry, Danny, we're going to take very good care of you. You've got the best Doctor in the U.S. to do this and your friend General Carter is going to help too. Everything is going to be just fine."

He didn't try to answer her. He knew that he wouldn't be able to talk because he was scared. Scared spitless, scared stupid, and just plain scared to death. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Loki bending over him, tying him down, hurting him so that he screamed until.he couldn't scream anymore. He felt the dull ache of the needle in his hand and the cold burning as the drug began to enter his veins. Danny lay there paralyzed with fear, knowing that he was putting all of his future into the hands of a doctor he barely knew, another doctor that he'd known when she was a child, and a scientist that he once thought of as an older sister. But he also knew that Paul, Jack, and Jon would never let this happen if they didn't know these people would do their best to help him. And he really, really wanted this to work. He wanted to live for Jon.

Kyle moved around to the head of the gurney and started to roll him down the hallway. As he traveled, Danny began to feel the effects of the drug they had injected into his IV solution. He grew sleepy as he watched the halls and the lights go past overhead. Soon he felt the bump as the gurney hit the door before it entered the large operating room. Hands helped him to shift to the surgical table. As he looked up, he could see several masked faces surrounding him. A bolt of fear went through him as he had a flash back to a small grey face looming over him.

"Danny? Daniel?" A face with familiar blue eyes interposed herself between him and his memories. "Danny, it's me, Sam. Are you all right?"

He looked at her and recognized Sam Carter. "Sc-sca-scar-ed," he managed to get out.

"Don't worry, Danny. I'm here to be sure nothing goes wrong." She looked up at one of the other masked faces. "Right, Doctor Adams?"

"Absolutely, young man. Don't you worry a bit, and you know Doctor Fraiser, she's acting as your anesthesiologist and Nurse Carson here is my surgical assistant." The Doctor's kind brown eyes met his. "We're going to take very good care of you."

He could recognize Cassie behind her mask. "Hey, there Danny. We're all here for you. Just relax, okay?" At his nod, she continued. "I'm going to put this mask on you and you need to breathe deeply. Okay?" Danny nodded again. "Now, I'm going to count backwards with you. One hundred, ninty-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven..."

Danny looked at Sam, and he could tell by the crinkling at the edge of her eyes she was smiling. She gripped his hand. "I've got you, Danny. Don't worry."

He blinked at her, then closed his eyes.

Part 6  
After watching Danny be taken off to surgery, Jon went over to where Daniel was still sleeping. Just as he sat down in the chair next to the bed, Jack wheeled himself into the clinic. The older man already looked tired and tousled, but he smiled at his younger counterpart. "Hey, how's it going?"

"They just took Danny to the OR," Jon replied solemnly

"That's good," Jack said encouragingly. "So, are you gonna go watch from the observation window?"

Jon shook his head. "I don't think I can. I'd probably throw up or pass out."

Jack nodded sympathetically. He rolled his wheelchair over next to the bed and took Daniel's hand in his. "They're gonna take his breathing tube out this morning. I want to be here when they do it." He glanced at his watch then back to his sleeping partner. "Barrett promised that they'd wait for me so I could be there when he woke up."

Jon sighed. "They must be running late because of Danny. It'll take most of the day from what I understand. Adams said he was going to take everything really slow to minimize the possibility of any more trauma." He sighed. "Danny was scared to death."

"I imagine so," Jack nodded. "He's smart enough to know what might happen."

The younger man looked at him questioningly. "Were we wrong to do this?"

Jack seemed to think for a moment. "No, you're just worried. It's the right thing to do."

"But so much can go wrong."

"But with the stuff in his head he'd never be able to do what he's meant to do. He'd always be different. He'd always be reminded of Loki." Jack looked at him. "You know, Barrett would never have suggested this if she hadn't thought it would work. And Carter wouldn't have gone along with it either."

"I'm just afraid that they're doing it for the SGC, not for Danny."

"You don't really believe that do you?" Jack asked in surprise. "So much of Daniel is wrapped up in this project. I don't believe that he'd be happy stuck here watching everyone else go through the Stargate and him have to stay here."

Jon motioned to the sleeping figure. "Daniel can't go back through."

"But, Daniel has had a lifetime of adventure and excitement. He's had twenty years of exploring new worlds and learning new things. Danny got cheated. He deserves his chance, just like you do."

The two men heard a bustle of noise behind them. They turned around to see Doctor Barrett and a nurse come in with a wheeled tray. "Well, good morning gentlemen. Any movement from our patient?"

Jack smiled and shook his head. "Nope, still sleeping beauty here."

"He's just being a lie-a-bed." She smiled back. "And Jon, I saw they've taken Danny to surgery."

"Yes, they left just a few minutes ago. You must have just missed them."

She nodded. "He'll do just fine. Just like Daniel here."

Barrett and her nurse spent a few moments arranging things on the tray. Then she reached over, took Daniel's hand in hers, and spoke to him in a strong loud voice. "Come on Daniel, wake up for me. We want to get rid of that nasty tube and have you back among us."

Daniel's eyelids fluttered and his facial expression changed. His body moved and he finally opened his eyes. He blinked, then looked up at the doctor.

She quickly removed the tube and stood back waiting for any adverse reactions. Finally satisfied that he was breathing and swallowing successfully, she smiled and stepped back. "It's good to have you back Doctor Jackson." She shifted her position so that he could see Jack and Jon. "And you have visitors."

Daniel didn't say anything, but he caught Jack's eyes and held them with his own.

Barrett continued to monitor his vitals for a few minutes, then smiled at the men. "I think you are okay with these two. If you need anything, just press the call button."

Daniel nodded and she left the three men alone.

If Jon was expecting anything romantic to occur between the two older men, he was sadly disappointed.

"What the hell were you thinking about?" Jack blustered. "You know that you're not supposed to be going through the Stargate any more."

Daniel ignored the angry words and looked uncomfortable. Finally he asked in a rough hoarse voice. "What ... you doing ... in that chair?"

"If you must know, I hurt my knee when I carried you back through the Stargate."

"You went through ... gate again?"

"You were being held prisoner. I went after you. That's my job."

"No ... other people ... active duty ... people." He looked at Jon standing there with his hands in his fatigue pant's pocket. "Where's Danny?"

"Danny's having an operation. When he went through the gate to get you, he had a seizure. They're taking all that metal crap out of his head right now." Jack glared at him. "Anything else you want to know?"

"Why ... Danny coming ... through ... gate after me?" Daniel was trying to sit up in the bed.

"Gentlemen!" Doctor Barrett was back in the room. "If you can't be quiet and not upset my patient, I will make you leave! Now, please calm down!" She went over and pressed a hand on Daniel's chest. "You've had a severe asthma episode and you very nearly died. Now, stay down in that bed." She turned to glare at the two O'Neills. "And you two, out, both of you."

"But, Doc ... "

"Hey, c'mon ... "

The two started speaking simultaneously. She shook her head at them. "No, I will not let my patient be upset."

"But, I didn't do anything!" Jon protested.

Barrett glared at him, then Jack. "Don't you have an appointment for an evaluation of your knee?"

"No!"

"Yes!" she replied in the same tone of voice. "You do. And you know it."

"Wait, I'm not upsetting Daniel. He ... " Jon protested.

"Okay, look, I'll make a deal with you ... and it's the only time this is going to happen, so don't get used to it." Barrett silenced everyone with a wave of her hand. "You, General, do have an appointment for your knee. So, you come with me." She ignored his glare. "Jon, you may stay here with Daniel. Talk softly and don't upset him. Danny will be back sometime this afternoon." She smiled at the young man's expression. "He'll be asleep the rest of the day anyway, so don't expect too much."

Jon nodded, relieved that he wasn't being evicted.

Jack frowned. "How does this help me?"

"You know there's someone here you can trust, and you don't get ejected from the SGC," she replied firmly, taking hold of the wheelchair's handles. "Now, let's go and get this over with and not keep the therapist waiting."

~~~

Late that afternoon, Jack and Jon were sitting next to Daniel playing cards and watching him sleep when the team wheeled Danny back into the clinic. Jon immediately came to his feet and stepped closer to watch them. He was met by Sam Carter who grasped him by the arm and led to the side to watch them transfer Danny from the gurney to the bed.

She spoke softly. "He came through the surgery fine, Jon. After we removed the implant from his skull, we got all of the wiring. It just slipped right out of the tissue with no resistance."

"So he'll be okay?" He looked past her to where they were settling Danny.

"Well, he should be," she admitted. "But ... well, we'll have to see when he wakes up."

At Jon's expression, Sam smiled encouragingly. She looked at Doctor Adams who came over to speak to him.

"He came through the surgery like a champ," the man said encouragingly. "We didn't have an unexpected blip on any of the monitors. He's a strong boy."

Jon nodded. "He's been through a lot all right," He could only look hopeful. "And he's going to be okay?"

Adams looked at him seriously. "Jon, I'll be honest with you. Everything went perfectly. The implants came out easily. There is no sign of complications, but we're in totally new waters here. We just won't know until he wakes up."

The worried man could only nod. They'd known that going into the surgery. Now he could only sit, wait, and hope. He glanced back over to where Jack and Daniel were watching from their area of the infirmary. Jack was trying to look supportive; Daniel was failing in looking encouraging. He could feel the tension emanating from the two of them and it wasn't helping him at all.

Finally the doctors and medical staff got their patient settled and properly hooked up to all the proper devices. They nodded encouragingly and left them alone.

Carter headed over to the other O'Neill and Jackson. They exchanged pleasantries and within a few minutes Barrett had gone over to break up the gathering. Jack squeezed Daniel's hand and Carter kissed him on the forehead and then they were shooed out of the room.

Jon tried to make himself small and unnoticeable but failed. Barrett looked him square in the eyes and said "You may stay, but only if you continue to behave yourself."

Jon nodded and hurriedly snatched a plastic chair and sat it down beside the newly vacated space next to the occupied hospital bed. He got his first look at his partner's face.

Danny looked like a dead child. The normally fair skin was the same color as the white bandages that covered his shaven head. He was on a ventilator and festooned with various tubes and electrodes that monitored, pumped, and measured his vital organs performance. Jon grasped the cold hand that was closest to him and tried to will his own life force into it to supply Danny with anything he could give.

Jon felt a presence next to him. It was Cassie.

"Hi," she said softly.

He nodded, afraid to speak for fear of an emotional outburst.

She pulled another chair next to his and sat down. "They got it out. All of it. The electrodes came out clean without any apparent tearing." She indicated the still form. "This is to be expected. The surgery itself was a huge shock to his system. He should be awake by tomorrow or the next day."

He nodded again.

"It was his decision, Jon. Don't lay claim to any guilt when there's none to be found."

"I should have stopped him," he ground out.

"How? How would you stop a Daniel Jackson from being or doing anything that he wanted to do?" She smiled at him.

He just sighed and dropped his head. "I don't know. I never knew."

Then a weak voice came from across the room. "Can't."

Doctor Barrett had obviously left soon after Cassie had arrived. Daniel was alone, and he was watching them.

Jon released his grip on Danny's hand and hurried over to the older man's bedside. "You trying to get me kicked out too?"

Daniel only shook his head. "He made ... decision ... you be there ... for him," he managed to wheeze in short spurts followed by a moist sounding cough. "No fault."

"But, I let him make it."

"No choice."

Cassie had followed Jon to the older man's bedside. "Uncle Daniel, you're supposed to be resting. That's why Jack and Sam had to leave," Cassie fussed at him gently.

Daniel nodded wearily at the woman. "Wake me ... when Danny ..."

"I will, don't worry," Jon promised. The older man looked exhausted. "You get some sleep so when Jack comes back you can be awake."

"You go...to him...be there..."

"I will, you can count on it."

~~~

Danny didn't wake up that day. He didn't wake up the next day or the next and Jon was getting worried.

Jack had the good news that his leg would heal on its own and, since Daniel was being kept in the clinic on oxygen and a corti steroid drip, had been spelling him so that Danny wouldn't be alone. It was nerve wracking, Jon's worst nightmare of the operation's results. There was nothing wrong. There wasn't any obvious nerve damage or physical emergencies, Danny just refused to wake up.

General Davis had requested that Jon be assigned TDY to the SGC for the duration, so he wasn't missing anything ... except his Danny of course. The youngster was too important to the program to ignore his needs, even the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff could see that. What was one pilot in training more or less, compared to his presence in the clinic at this point in time to help Daniel Jackson Junior to recover?

So, Jon spent his days at Danny's bedside speaking softly to the unconscious man, trying to cajole him back to the world of the living. He read the newspapers and fishing magazines until he was blue in the face. He'd talk of the old times before they were cloned, and then the time he spent alone afterwards. How he'd gone back to school to improve himself. He talked about trying to avoid the pitfalls he'd encountered in his first incarnation and how he'd only found himself mired in new ones.

Most of all, at night when they were mostly alone and Jack had been sent to the VIP suite that he'd been assigned, he spoke of the loneliness and the wanting that he'd experienced without Danny's presence. Holding on to the young man's hand was his only reality now. If his young lover didn't recuperate completely from the brain surgery, Jon knew that he'd spend the rest of his life supporting and caring for him. They would be together, no matter what. He'd learned the hard way what his life was like without Danny. He wouldn't go there again.

On the fourth day, he sat by Danny's bedside holding his partner's hand. As he went to pull his hand loose to turn the page of the book he'd been reading, he felt resistance. Glancing over, he saw the previously lax fingers that he'd been holding now had a tentative grip on his hand. He laid the book down on the bed and turned to look more closely. "Danny? Danny, are you awake?"

The blue eyes were indeed partially open and seemed to be following his movements. "Danny?" Jon looked around the clinic and saw one of the med techs filling a cabinet. He motioned to her. "Get one of the Doctors. I think he's waking up."

Cassie appeared from her office and started taking vitals. "He's working his way back to us, Jon. It's just a matter of time I think," she said encouragingly. "One never knows how people will react to this type of surgery, and he had a rough time going through the wormhole. Just stay with him and keep on with what you're doing." She laid her hand on Jon's shoulder. "It should be any time now."

Then that evening, Danny started to wake up in earnest. He began to shift in the bed, jerking his arms, and moving his head from side to side, making little noises and breathing heavily. Jon took his hands in his and tried to ground him by speaking to him. "Hey, Danny, you're okay. You're here at the SGC."

The blue eyes opened slightly then slid closed again. "Nodream."

At the first verbalization, Jon slid closer, still holding Danny's hand in his own, he took his free hand and used it to gently caress the youngster's cheek. "Danny, it's not a dream. You're here with me. You're safe at the SGC."

Danny blinked and closed his eyes again. "Noo drream, Loki! Sorrysorrysorry."

Jon took a quick glance around, no one was in the room except a dozing Daniel. He leaned over and kissed Danny on the lips. "I swear to you, sweetheart. It's no dream. You're in the SGC recovering from surgery. You're safe and you need to wake up now. Open those baby blues for me ... okay?"

Danny heard the voice, but couldn't believe it. When he first had started to come around, he could only feel the softness he was lying on and a warm pressure on his hand and arm. He felt nauseous and dizzy, like he'd feel after some sort of procedure had been done on him, but the surroundings were wrong. He had a flash of an Asgard looking down at him and it scared him.

But when he opened his eyes the bright lights hurt and the noise the monitors making were confusing him. Only the warm hand clasping his gave him any encouragement. Then he felt something cup his cheek and a gentle kiss was pressed on his mouth. The soft droning voice urged him on and finally he tried to open his eyes.

A beautiful, beloved, worried face peered down at him. It was Jack, but it wasn't Jack. Whoever this was, was too young. Had he touched something? Jack was always yelling at him for touching the wrong thing off-world. Had he been wounded? Where was everyone else? He was in the clinic; where was Janet?"

He could see the lips move, but they didn't seem in sync with the words. SGC...safe...Daniel... wormhole...surgery..."

The face came into focus. "You've had surgery, Danny. You're safe now. Loki can't hurt you anymore. C'mon, babe, wake up for me."

Another hand took over, a cool smaller hand, and a light flashed in his eyes. "Wake up, Danny. It's time to wake up now.'

"Janet?"

"No, Danny, it's Cassie. Do you know where you are?"

"SssGeCe?" Pleasepleaseplease.

"That's right, it's the SGC. You're in the infirmary. You've had brain surgery to remove the computer link from your skull. You're safe."

It was so confusing. Where was Jack? Was he okay?"

"Jack?"

"Right here Danny. I'm right beside you. Can't you see me?"

"Jack? You diff'ent."

The unlined face beamed at him. "Yep, and I'm not the only one."

"Wa...hpen?"

"We'll discuss this all later," the warm feminine not-Janet voice said softly. "Get some rest now."

"Jk?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"St'y"

"Not going anywhere sweetheart. I'll be right here."

"Ky."

And so he slept.

Part 7  
Jon sat and watched Danny as the younger man slipped off into sleep still holding on to his hand. He felt his heart grow to bursting. Danny was alive. He was talking and he remembered him. It was all he had prayed for and more.

"Jon."

He looked up at Cassie. "Yeah?"

"Jon, you need some sleep now. Why don't you go to the VIP suites and check out a bed for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep?" She smiled at him. "It would do you a world of good."

"I look that bad?"

She nodded. He shook his head and smiled but Cassie didn't fall for it. "Not gonna work. I know you too well."

"We haven't seen each other for fifteen years until yesterday. You don't know me THAT well."

"On the contrary, I've known you for twenty years." She smiled at him. "Remember?."

"Okay, I give in. But I'll be back first thing in the morning."

"I knew that. Now, get out."

~~~

He woke up to the sounds and smells of the clinic. Crap, why was he here this time? Was he hit as he came through the gate? Where was everyone else?

As he moved to a more comfortable position in the bed, he heard a sound. "Danny? You awake?" He'd know that voice anywhere. "Jack?"

"Right here, Danny." He could feel the familiar hand take his in a firm grip. "You're doing fine. Just relax?"

//"What happened?"//

"What did you say?"

//"I asked, what happened?"// he said in a confused voice. He looked up into the face of his best friend. He was old! Jack had white hair, wrinkles, and was wearing glasses. //"Jack, what happened to you?"//

"Danny, wait a minute." The old man squeezed his hand then let go and backed up from his bed. For some reason, the old Jack was in a wheel chair. He rolled across the room to another bed in the clinic. He stopped and spoke to the man lying asleep in it. "Daniel, I need you to wake up here." From what he could see of the other man, he was older too, apparently in his fifties.

The man woke up to the call of the old man and raised his bed to a sitting position. In a hoarse voice he answered. "What's going on, Jack?"

Danny stared at the form in the other bed in horror. It looked like him! It was him! Danny moved quickly and threw the covers back to get to his feet, As he sat up in the bed the room started to spin and go black. He felt himself fall to the floor and heard Old Jack calling for a doctor in a panicked voice.

When he regained consciousness again, he was looking up at a much younger Jack O'Neill's face. He must have had a dream of some sort. Then Jack stepped back and he saw his own face looking down at him, but his face was old too. //"Hello"// the old him said quietly. //"Do you know who I am?"//

//"You look like me."// he managed to reply. He looked toward Jack, but there were two of them there now, one old and one young.

//"That's right. I am you. But I'm different."// He smiled encouragingly. //"Don't worry, I can explain."//

At the sound of their voices, two women came into the room and approached the bed. "What's going on here?" one of the women asked unhappily.

The old Jack looked at her and replied, "We seem to have a situation here, doc."

//"Who are they?"// he asked young Jack, beginning to get a bit frightened.

The one blond woman stepped forward. She looked like Sam, but she was too old. "Oh," she said.

The young Jack looked at her and repeated, "Oh? Oh really. Oh, and he can't seem to speak English either."

He looked back at the old Daniel. "English?"

The man with his old face and the silvered, light brown hair nodded. //"We're speaking Egyptian."//

Danny frowned. "Eng-lish."

"There. That's good." The old Jack nodded "Try that again."

"I...I...Eng-lish?"

His older self stepped forward. "Danny, can you understand me?"

He nodded.

"Can you speak more English?"

"I...Eng ... word ... " He knew what he wanted to say ... tried to say it ... but it wouldn't come. The words were wrong. He shook his head. "Eng-lish ... speeeak ... h-rd."

Young Jack came back to him. "Do you know who I am?"

"Jaaak?"

He shook his head. "You call me Jon." The young man tilted his head to the older version of himself as an indicator. "That's Jack."

Danny looked at him wonderingly then at the older version of himself. "Dan ... el?"

"Yes," his older self answered.

He tried, but couldn't remember how to ask his question in English. //"You're me?"//

Daniel shook his head then answered. //No, not exactly. You're my 'clone'."// the unfamiliar word was spoken in English but he understood it.

//"I'm not real?"//

//"You are very real. Never doubt it."// His older self smiled down at him, then coughed, covering his mouth with his hand. //"You've had surgery, and you seem to be confused. What do you remember?"//

He shook his head. //"I don't really remember anything."// He shrugged his shoulders. //"We were on a mission? How did I, uh we, get split?"//

//"What year is it?"// Daniel prompted him.

//"Two thousand and two."//

//"No, "// the older man corrected gently. //"It's twenty eighteen. I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson and I'm fifty-three years old."//

He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. //"Did I go through a Quantum mirror?"//

The woman doctor stepped forward and put a hand on old Daniel's arm. "You need to stop talking so much. You'll have another attack."

Old Daniel nodded to her and then looked over his shoulder, motioning for young Jack to come beside him. The other man brought a chair with him and Daniel sat down gratefully. "Thanks, Jon." He looked back at Danny. //"Can you understand us if we speak English?"//

He nodded. He could mostly.

The young Jack, who was evidently called Jon, stepped forward, "Can you understand what I'm saying? Okay?" He looked longingly at him. "You remember in two thousand and two, when I was cloned from Jack? Well, soon after that, we're not sure when, they got to Daniel too. They took the DNA specimen that later became you. A while back, Thor brought you to me. Is this beginning to sound familiar?"

He thought hard. There were flashes of scenes but nothing concrete. "P..oo..f."

Jon looked at the doctors and old Sam went back into the office, returning with a small mirror. She handed it to Jon and he turned it towards him. The reflection was shocking. His skin tone was very pale, and above the familiar blue eyes his head was wrapped in bandages from his brows up to the crown of his head. "Wha h'pp'nd?"

"You've had surgery," the doctor woman replied, "To remove the metal electrodes that Loki had implanted in your head. You came through the surgery fine ... until now that is." She shrugged. "I'm not sure why you've forgotten who you are, but I'm sure it will come back to you sooner or later."

He nodded. He thought that he understood. He had been made, he was a clone, he wasn't really Daniel Jackson. Danny looked over at Jon, who smiled encouragingly at him. Then he looked at the 'real' Jackson. //"Where do I belong?"//

Daniel shrugged and smiled back, slipping into their native tongue. //"I could be wrong, but I think that you belong with him."// He nodded towards Jon. //"It's as good a place as any to start."//

//"What if I don't remember?"//

//"Then, you'll make new memories."//

Barrett hurrumphed. "I think that we need more tests. Are you up to it?"

Danny nodded searching for the right words to make himself understood. "Ye-ea-s. I...w-an-ttt kn-oo–w."

Daniel nodded. //"I'm going to go rest now, but I'm here if you need me ... okay?"// He looked at Jack who rolled his chair nest to Daniel over to help him back to the bed across the room.

The doctor smiled at him. "I'm going to give you something to help you relax. Then I'll go and get the tests set up for tomorrow. I'll be back later to check on you." She drew a syringe and injected something into the IV line's port.

Danny watched her then looked at the other woman who had remained in the background. She stepped forward and asked quietly. "Do you remember who I am?"

"S-ss-am."

Carter took the opportunity to smile at him and take his hand. "Don't worry Danny. We'll get this figured out for you okay?"

He could only nod mutely at the woman that he remembered as young and beautiful.

She leaned down to kiss him on the forehead. "Get some sleep, okay? Jon and the General will be here. No one will bother you." She moved away from the bed and Jon immediately pulled a chair over and took her place.

The young man settled himself in the chair next to Danny's bed. "Just relax, babe. It'll be all right. I promise."

"J-jon?"

"I've got you." The young man quickly took his hand in his own and raised it to his lips. "No one will hurt you here; I'll protect you."

The drug had begun to take its toll on him and he was beginning to feel as if he were drifting on clouds.

//"Jon, don't leave me,"// he murmured.

"I don't know what you said, Danny, but I'll be right here for you. Now, get some sleep."

~~~

He was lying on a table, his arms and legs were strapped down at his sides and his head was held firmly in place by a mental clamp. The small grey creature was scurrying around him coming in and out of his view.

"What do you feel?" the whispery little voice now came from behind his head.

He answered honestly. "I feel cold and ... and scared."

"I will only be a short time. Stay still."

He was aware of the feeling of cold; as the hair was shaven from his scalp, then a sharp, hot pain as the skin was penetrated. He closed his eyes and started to breathe fast, biting his lips so that no sound could escape him. He felt the vibration that penetrated throughout his skeleton, then the agonizing grinding that was heralded by a high pitched whining sound. Tears ran down the sides of his face trickling past his ears and dampening the table beneath him.

"We are nearly complete. Now, you must keep perfectly still while I insert the wires. If you do not, the experiment will be ruined and I will be displeased."

He tried to blink the tears from his eyes. He could taste the blood from his lips where he had bitten into them. Suddenly, a blinding pain struck him and his senses went into overload. He began to experience phantom tastes and smells as some thing penetrated his brain. He tried to stay still but his body rebelled arching up against the steel cuffs, his limbs fighting against his bonds, his bladder released and he screamed.

~~~

And he screamed, thrashing his limbs as he fought for escape from the horrors of his dreams.

But instead of the hard table and the cold steel, Danny awoke to find himself surrounded by soft bedding and strong arms. But the experience of being held was the same; he flailed and fought, screaming in several languages.

"Danny, Danny, babe, it's okay." The reassuring voice spoke loudly in his ear, calming him and calling him back from his nightmare. "I've got you, sweetheart. You're safe. You're safe here."

As he struggled against the strength that held him he cried out. //"No! Let me go! It hurts! God, it hurts!"//

"Danny, Danny! Please Danny, I've got you. Please, you're safe, babe, I've got you."

Another voice broke through his panic. //"Danny, Daniel, relax. You're safe here with us. No more hurt, no more harm."// He slung his arm out violently, impacting something. This led to more voices yelling; more noise that frightened him.

He finally collapsed from sheer exhaustion. The voices became more understandable, one spoke his native tongue and the other spoke with love.

Now he could make out more voices, some male, some female; all calling for things and giving instructions. But the one he heard most was the one next to his ear, calling his name, speaking to him in a calm soothing voice. It was the one that called him Danny and belonged to the strong gentle arms that held him. He felt a plastic mask put on his face and a needle prick in his arm. The fear began to pass as he sank into a drugged lethargy.

A woman's voice penetrated the fog. "Danny, can you hear me, it's Doctor Barrett. Danny, do you know me?" A worried face framed with dark hair swam into his view. "Danny, can you understand me?"

"Doc-tor," he gasped out. It was a guess but it seemed to please her.

"Yes, Danny, Doctor Barrett." The woman bent close and ask softly, "Do you know where you are?"

"Sss-Gee-Cee." He looked behind her. There was no one there. "J'n?"

"I'm here, Danny." The beloved face appeared next to him. "I'm here for you."

"Ss-ta-yee."

"I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Relax, rest. I'm right beside you, feel my hand."

He hesitantly extended his arm, questing for, and finding the warm hand, which he grasped in a death grip.

"I've got you, I've got you" the voice whispered in his ear. He finally relaxed and slept again.

Part 8  
Jon was sitting on the side of the bed. Danny had fallen into an exhausted, drugged sleep holding onto his hand in death grip. Barrett only smiled and nodded, then turned to look at her other patient. Daniel was lying full out on the floor, breathing heavily and recovering from the backhanded swipe that he'd received from Danny. Cassie knelt next to him, examining him for injuries..

Jack was sitting back a few feet in his chair, unable to assist his partner. "I told you not to get too close." He griped at Daniel who was being examined by the young woman doctor.

Daniel peered up from the floor at him. "Jeez, Jack, ya think?" he grumbled as the younger woman helped him to stand.

"Well as long as you're all right," the General complained.

"Just a bruise on my ass," Daniel wheezed, looking at Cassie, who proceeded to help him up and escort him back to his bed. "How long do I have to stay in bed anyway?" he groused.

"Until your blood oxygen level is up to 97 and you're off O2 at least. You know the drill," the doctor replied as she tucked him back into the hospital bed. "Oh, and thanks for the help with Danny."

"No problem." Daniel looked at his clone with concern. "He scared me to death with that falling out of bed trick."

"Yes, I need to get this guy home where he won't be so helpful," Jack commented.

They all looked over to where Jon was sitting on the bed holding the younger man's hand through the now raised bed rails. "At least he's getting his memories back, even if they're the bad ones first." She smiled at the two older men and patted Daniel's hand. "I'm going to go help them clean him up, Susan has to go report this to General Davis. He's very interested in ... "

"Yes, I am." Paul Davis walked in followed by Samantha Carter. "I'm very interested and I heard a lot of yelling going on in my infirmary. That can't be good."

"Danny had a nightmare, a flashback," Jack supplied. "Jon and Daniel got him calmed down but it took a little bit of effort and falling down." He frowned at his partner who smiled sweetly at him.

Davis came over and looked critically at his chief linguist. "That's what I've heard. Nice shiner, Daniel."

Daniel smiled up at him and put his hand on his cheek. "Thanks, I guess I zigged when I should have zagged."

The general shook his head and glanced over to where the bed was being remade and Danny cleaned up. "The boy's got some issues."

"Well, Paul, if you'd been used as a lab rat for almost two years you'd have some issues too." Jack nodded. "He's coming around, but Traumatic Stress Syndrome takes a long time to get over. The surgery just brought some stuff back. He'll be all right, just give him some time," the older man assured the general.

"At least he has you two and Jon for support," Sam Carter said knowingly coming over to get out of the way of the medics who were changing Danny's sheets. "Two Dads and a best friend."

"Sam?" Daniel looked at his old friend thoughtfully. "Could you use the healing device on him? Maybe that could help speed things up and get him out of this laboratory atmosphere that much faster."

She looked doubtful. "I don't know. I haven't tried to use it in ten years at least. I don't know if I have enough of Jolinar's presence left in me to operate it."

Jack looked at her hopefully. "All you can do is try. How much could it hurt?"

Cassie had been following the conversation and she stepped over to join them. "I know that mom was always interested in its potential. Could you try it? Even if it only helped a little ... say to seal the skull, it would do a lot of good."

Davis looked doubtful. "Is there even one around here? I thought they had all been packed up and shipped to Area 51."

The young woman smiled at her foster mother. "Oh, I think there might have been one accidently left behind."

The General shook his head. "I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing. Go for it."

~~~

A short time later Sam, Cassie, Doctor Barrett, and Jon were gathered around Danny's bedside. The young man had not woken since the nightmare incident. Barrett was even concerned that he might have re- injured himself in the fall, though there had been no sign of bleeding.

The small round hand device had been located in the back of a storage cabinet. Davis had thrown up his hands and simply left the clinic muttering about not wanting to know about any alien mechanisms that 'might' accidently show up.

Sam slipped the mechanism over her palm and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and concentrated on willing the alien object to work. The device began to feel warm to her. A strange warbling sound emanated from the healing object and they could see an almost imperceptible beam begin to shine down on the unconscious man.

She took another deep breath and tried to picture in her mind the images from the CAT scans that she had seen before the surgery. Sam imagined the burned areas within the brain transforming back to clean white tissue. She also traced the pathways of the wires, willing them to close and reestablish their proper connections. As she felt the device begin its work, Sam also saw the damaged skull bone begin to knit around the ceramic plate that had been placed in Danny's skull when the surgeon had the removed the Asgardian device. Finally, when she was so exhausted that she could no longer hold the connection, she dropped her arms and heaved a sigh of relief.

"That's it, that's all I can do."

Doctor Barrett quickly stepped in and began to take Danny's vitals. Cassie took Sam's arm and guided her to a chair close by. Jon could only stand and watch the doctor's actions.

She turned and smiled at them. "He's good, vitals are strong, and he's certainly not any worse."

Even as she spoke, Danny moved slightly, wakening from his sleep. He blinked, looking first at the doctor then beyond her to Jon. O'Neill moved quickly up to the bed and grasped the younger man's hand. "Danny, can you hear me? How do you feel?"

The patient managed a smile. "I ... hear you ... fine. Feel good."

Jon smiled broadly back at him. "That's good, babe. That's really good."

"What ... happened?"

"General Carter used the Goa'uld healing device on you."

Danny lay still a moment, then smiled. "I ... feel ... better."

"And you're speaking English again," Jon agreed happily. "For a little while I thought I'd have to learn Egyptian." At Danny's confused look, Jon had to chuckle.

"Can you sit up?" Barrett asked. When he did with Jon's assistance, she began to unwrap the bandage. It exposed a perfectly healed scar over the surgical site with extraneous stitches standing out like black Xs on the pale scalp. "This is amazing." She said.

Cassie leaned over go look also. "This is awesome, Sam." She turned to beam at Carter. "We definitely need you to come to visit more often."

Sam pinked in pleasure and turned to Barrett. "What happens next?"

She returned the grin. "I'd say we take some x-rays, then get rid of these stitches."

~~~

Jon drove carefully into the parking lot of their apartment building. After parking the jeep in its assigned slot, he hurried around to the passenger's door.

Danny was sitting quietly, almost asleep. His head was heavily bandaged for protection against any accidental contact and he was groggy from pain meds. He'd been released from the SGC clinic and Jon wanted to get him home in one piece and safely and warmly tucked into his bed as soon as possible.

Carter and her healing device had done a lot of good. Daniel's brain lesions had closed, his skull had bonded with the ceramic plate, and the scalp had healed with nothing but thin lines that looked like a number 2 pencil had its way with him. Other than recovering from the shock of the surgery, Danny was almost well. They had all agreed that getting him out of the laboratory and into the more familiar surroundings of their apartment could only help.

Daniel had been released into the care of his Jack earlier that day. The two older men had headed to their home with promises to call them later that evening when they were confident that Jon had Danny settled in.

Speaking gently to the younger man, Jon coaxed his friend out of the jeep's front seat and into a standing position. "C'mon, babe. We're here."

The younger man nodded slowly. "Home?" he asked plaintively.

"Yep, home. Now let's get you up to the apartment." Danny began to walk slowly and with single-minded purpose with his partner supporting him by his arm. Jon wasn't sure that Danny could make it to the lobby's elevator but he was confident that he could carry the slight body if he needed too.

However, the younger man managed to keep his feet with Jon's arm under his elbow for support. They made it inside and almost to the main desk, Frank, the security guard came around his desk to help him with his burden.

"Captain O'Neill?" he asked unhappily. "What's happened? Is Mister Jackson all right?"

"Hi Frank. Can you get the elevator for us?" Jon sat the younger man down in one of the lobby's chairs.

"Certainly." The concerned doorman hurried over and hit the button on the wall. He looked at them worriedly. "What happened to him?"

"He was in a car wreck last week, that's why we haven't been home. I've been staying at the hospital with him."

The security man shook his head. "I'd missed you, sir, but I thought that you were on a TDY and he was staying with his father. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Jon smiled at him and nodded. "Thanks, but there's nothing you could have done. I just need to get him up to the apartment and get him into bed."

"Here's your car, sir." Frank held the doors open while Jon guided the somnambulistic Danny into it. "If you need anything, just ring."

"Thanks, Frank. I think we'll be fine once I get Danny settled."

"Yes sir." The man made sure that they were ready for the elevator to start and he closed the door.

Jon made a quick job of getting his Danny undressed and tucked into the large bed in the master bedroom. As he tucked the younger man in his own king-sized bed, he smiled down at the sleepy looking Danny. "Hey, why don't you take a nap."

"Don't know why I'm so tired," the younger man mumbled.

"Could be all that happy juice that the doc insisted upon pumping into you." Jon stroked his cheek. "Your head hurt?"

"Maybe ... a little ... kinda."

The older man chuckled. "A little bit huh? Well you take a nap and I'll fix some dinner." He leaned down and kissed the nose between the pair of sleepy blue eyes.

Several hours later Jon was sitting on the couch watching a hockey game on his 3D-TV. He still had an urge to duck every time a puck came toward the camera. The technology kept getting better and better, but the viewer still had hard habits to break.

The vid-phone jangled annoyingly and he rushed to pick it up before it woke Danny. As he flipped the screen up, he saw it was Jack. "Hey, how ya doing?" he asked.

"We're okay, I got him home and sleeping beauty is crashed." Jon smiled fondly at the thought of his Danny still sleeping in his bed waiting for him.

"Good. Daniel's doing a log sawing imitation too." Jack chuckled, then peered into the screen on his side. "You look beat."

"Well, you know, haven't gotten a lot of sleep the last few days and I'm beginning to wind down a little. Thought about having a drink but decided I needed to stay alert for a night or two."

Jack nodded his approval. "Good idea. I'm sleeping light myself. I have this horrible fear that he's gonna stop breathing on me."

"I know the feeling."

"Jon, I never did thank you ... or Danny for what you did for us." Jack looked a little embarrassed. "I really appreciate ... "

"Cut it out Jack. You would have done the same."

"Yeah, well, okay, you're right ... but thanks anyway."

The two O'Neills looked at one another through the vidphone. Finally Jack said, "Well, gotta go and feed Daniel. If you need anything ... "

"I'll call. Kiss Daniel for me, will ya?"

"Yeahchuryabettcha. Back at cha."

As Jon disconnected he thought that he heard a slight noise coming from the bedroom. He got up from the couch and turned off the muted TV. As he went into the bedroom, Jon saw that Danny had turned on his side and was curled up in the foetal position, knees tucked up to his chest and arms wrapped around them. His shaven head was tilted down completing the body language. But when he entered the room he could hear the soft sounds coming from his lover. He slipped off his shoes and slid into the large bed and gently wrapped his arms around the younger man.

"Hey there, Danny," he whispered softly into the younger man's neck. "I've got you. Everything's okay. You're all right."

The frail shoulders hitched in a breath, "Jack?"

For a split second he thought the boy wanted his older self, but then he realized that Danny was still half dreaming. "Babe, I'm here. It's Jon."

"Jon?" Danny shifted a little allowing the arm to pull him close. "Alone."

"No babe, you're never alone, never again," he whispered. "I promise."

The younger man lay quiet for a moment, then spoke more intently. "I had a dream."

"Tell me."

"I didn't have a body anymore, and I was flying. But, I was so lonely."

Jon nodded. "Probably left over from your glowy time."

"I wasn't the glowy one." Danny said softly.

"You were one and the same them. You glowed." Jon cuddled him closer. "You still glow ... for me."

Danny shifted to face him. "How ugly am I now?"

"Ugly? I don't think you know how to be ugly," Jon said with a smile and a kiss. "You're just sporting a really short crew cut." He caressed the soft downy fuzz that had begun to grow back. "I know recruits with less hair."

"The scars?"

"Babe, I'll trade the scars for your old hardware anytime." He kissed the younger man again. "They're not bad at all, and in a few weeks you won't even know they're there." He pulled back and looked at his love with warm eyes. "Want some soup?"

Danny shook his head. "Just want to lie here, with you."

"Me too, Danny." He kissed the younger man again. "I've got all I want right here."

Part 9  
Across town at the O'Neill/Jackson house, a group of friends were gathered celebrating in a traditional fashion. Jack, Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, Rya'c, and Cassie were sitting around the familiar living room eating pizza and drinking beer. On the 3D television, there was an old movie playing softly in the background. They were telling stories on one another and enjoying the company.

Cassie got up to retrieve Jack and Sam another beer when she noticed a group picture that included her mother and General Hammond. On her way back in she picked it up and handed it to Jack. "When was this taken? I don't recognize it"

Jack took the beer in one hand and the picture in the other. He leaned over to concentrate squinting through his glasses. "I think this was right after we got Daniel back from the glowy people," he mused. "It was probably only a month or so before we lost Janet." He handed it to Daniel who was sitting next to him on the couch.

Daniel nodded. "I remember how happy I was that we were all together. I didn't realize how soon everything was going to change." He looked over at Cassie. "She would have been so proud of you, Cassie."

Teal'c watched his friends as their expression changed to one of sorrow. "She was a formidable warrior."

"I thought that you said that she was a healer, father?" Rya'c looked at his father.

"Her enemies were pain and suffering, my son. And she was forever steadfast in her battle."

Sam nodded. "She nearly quit the SGC when Master Braytac was using that Jaffa warrior healing technique on you; and the time we had captured Apophis. She hated doing that to any living being."

"Her steadfast resolve saved us all many a time." Teal'c looked at his son. "If it were not for her, I would have died several times."

"As we all would have," Daniel acknowledged.

"Yeah, well, you did, ya know."

Daniel smiled over his cup of coffee. "Yeah, well, I always came back though, didn't I?"

"That's true, O'Neill." Teal'c nodded with a Buddha grin. "He has always returned to you."

"And now, there's even someone for Jon," Carter said wistfully.

"He was a surprise," Jack agreed. "Who would have thought it ... a clone Daniel for clone Jon."

Teal'c looked at the retired General. "How did you locate Dannyjackson?"

"Actually, he was delivered by Commander Thor of the Asgard," Daniel answered. "They never approved of the experiments, so when he was located he was handed over to Jon, who called Paul."

"I was told that he was Daniel's son," Cassie commented wryly. "I should have known not to believe anything so normal about this group." She shrugged. "I just remember mom had said that you had a son with your wife."

"Well, in a way," Daniel answered. "Shi'fu is Sha'uri's son, but his father was Apophis."

Rya'c looked in amazement at his father. "But that is ... was forbidden, by the Goa'ulds themselves."

"Yes, my son. He was ... he is a harcesis."

"But now, he's an Ancient," Sam said.

"I wonder how he is," Daniel said softly.

"Oh, I'm sure that he's all fine and glowy, flying around doing good stuff and helping to ascend deserving folks just like Oma did."

Daniel smiled at Jack's analogy. "One can only hope." He sat forward and put his cup down as he started to cough.

Cassie immediately came forward, but he waived her off. "I'm gonna do that for a while, you know. There's no help for it."

Jack put his arm around his love. "Come on, let's get you settled for the night. You're tired and I can hear you wheezing."

"Yes, Jack. It's been fun," Sam said wistfully.

"Indeed, a very pleasant evening."

"Would you like a ride back to the base, Teal'c?" Samantha asked as she got up and pulled the keys to her rental car out of her purse.

"Thank you, Samantha. We should return to the SGC so that we can contact the Nox about the occurrences on the planet. " He nodded to Rya'c who rose, wincing from his shoulder. "Perhaps they will find another solution for the difficulties there."

"Yeah, tell the little guys that they're gonna have to find another substitute for the Daniel Jacksons of the universe. Our two are a little preoccupied this year."

"Indeed, I shall." Teal'c commented as the three companions headed for the doorway. "They will locate someone of their own, I am sure."

After the others had left, Daniel headed for the bedroom where he connected his nebulizer and began to do his breathing treatment for the evening. Jack, now on a pair of crutches, hobbled around cleaning up the dishes and setting the house to rights.

Finally he finished and came into their bedroom. Daniel was already in bed, lying on his left side and reading a book. Jack stretched out against him and slipped an arm around his waist. He placed a kiss behind the tempting ear in front of him. "Danny, we need to talk."

"We do?" The younger man leaned back against the warm chest, luxuriating in the feeling of well being and comfort.

"Yes, we do," Jack said firmly. "Please babe, no more off world trips, okay?"

Daniel sighed instigating a cough. "As if Susan and Cassie will ever let me again."

"I'm serious." Jack prodded Danny's abdomen. "No more. Let Danny and Jon have the fun from now on. I can't take any more of this."

Daniel nodded. "How about if I don't go without Jon or Danny?"

"Nope, I have the feeling that you can talk Jon into just about everything and all you have to do is tweak Danny's curiosity to get him excited."

"They may not want to go any more."

Jack chuckled. "As if. You know that's why Danny wanted the operation, so he could go off world. And even Jon couldn't handle both of you at one time."

Daniel snuggled closer to the warm, comfortable support of Jack's two arms. "Well, if you really want me to ... "

"I do."

"I guess I'll just have to stay home with everything I've ever wanted."

Jack kissed him again. "Sounds good to me and I know you're a man of your word."

Daniel just smiled and closed his eyes. Life was good.

~~~

Six months later, the SGC was functioning normally. The technicians had checked the gate out that morning and all systems were go. SG7 was prepped to go on a humanitarian mission to assist a planet's population that was suffering from the effects of tectonic activity that included earthquakes, mud slides, and volcanic eruptions. They were going in with advanced medical techniques and supplies, to assist in search and rescue operations. There was also a language barrier between the indigenous culture of the planet and the race that had been transplanted there by some more advanced species. They had survived together for centuries, but the tragedy and destruction had caused some hard feelings and recriminations.

Major Jon O'Neill checked his P90a, then looked over his shoulder at his team. Doctor Danny Jackson was adjusting his pack across his shoulders, evidently trying to settle an uncomfortable protrusion into a better position. Captain Cassie Fraiser was kneeling down on the concrete floor doing a final check on her medical bag, and their latest recruit, Mister Rya'c of Chulak, was fidgeting with his brand new Taur'i uniform vest. The laces were evidently too tight.

This was their first time out as a solo team. O'Neill's reassignment to the SGC six months earlier had been finalized last month, Jackson and Fraiser had been cleared for gate travel, and Rya'c had decided that he was bored with the political life of his home planet. They were all ready to go and eager to get there.

Brigidier General Paul Davis stood with his arms crossed watching from the observation deck. He caught the eye of his new team chief. "Open the gate, Sergeant."

As the chevrons began to lock into place, the tension in the room grew incrementally. The plasma flux formed and the wormhole kawooshed into existence.

"SG7 you have a go, and good luck."

The young Major nodded and saluted his senior officer. "Thank you, General Davis." A final glance showed everyone settled and ready. "Okay, kids. Let's go."

As they walked up the ramp, Danny sneezed. Jon glanced at him with a grin, then the four of them stepped through the Stargate together.

The ending?

**Author's Note:**

> The ending was written as a finish to the series. But, as usual, I couldn't leave it alone. I left it as is but may move it to a later story in the future. Or not. The question is open.


End file.
